Nai-Ching (Allison) Chi, PhD, RN

Associate Professor
Biography

Dr. Allison Chi’s program of research focuses on integrating advanced data science with technology to support dementia care, multimorbidity, pain management, family caregiving, and healthy aging. Specifically, Dr. Chi is (1) using advanced data analytics to examine patterns of multimorbidity, healthcare cost, and polypharmacy in people with dementia, (2) developing and designing technology-based interventions with data science to support personalized care, pain management, and family caregiving, and (3) examining innovative technologies such as virtual reality and conversational agent to support healthy aging.

Dr. Chi completed her doctoral training in nursing and informatics at the University of Washington in 2017. She was the recipient of a 3-year informatics training grant from Taiwan Ministry of Education, a Sigma Theta Tau International-Psi-at-Large Chapter small grant, and a scholarship from the Washington State King County Nurses Association. She was also recognized as an outstanding graduate of the University of Washington Class of 2017.

Dr. Chi joined the University of Iowa in 2017. Currently she is funded by

(1) the Alzheimer’s Association to evaluate her web PACE-app intervention (PACE, PAin Control Enhancement) to support family caregivers in providing pain management, and 

(2) the NIH administrative supplement grant (P20 NR018081) to use big data approaches to investigate the clinically relevant and correlated patterns of multimorbidity in people with Alzheimer’s disease and to characterize their pain symptomology and healthcare utilization.

Dr. Chi has published  over 30 scientific papers and has received several awards and recognition from NIH and professional organizations, including the 2021 NIA Butler-Williams Scholar, the 2021 NIA Aging Initiative MCCs Scholar, the 2022 Emerging Leader and 2020 Research Scholar Award from the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, and the 2020 New Investigator Award and the 2021 Outstanding Publication Award in Palliative Care Research from the Midwest Nursing Research Society.

Curriculum Vitae

Research areas
  • Dementia and multimorbidity
  • Pain management and family caregiving
  • Technology-based interventions with advanced data science
Nai-Ching (Allison) Chi
PhD, Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics, University of Washington
MS, Clinical Informatics and Patient-Centered Technologies, University of Washington
MSN, University of California, San Francisco
BSN, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan