Health Innovation Professor Mary Pietrowicz

Why I'm Motivated to be a HIP Faculty Member:

I’m interested in collaborating with Carle clinicians and with CI MED students on research and in seeking funding to support the work. I’m also interested in learning more about the practical use context (e.g., clinics, hospitals, patient support, etc.) to ensure that the right questions are addressed in a practical way that encourages usable tools and solutions. I would also enjoy the opportunity to advise students and share the learning experience with them.

Carle Illinois College of Medicine Related Research

What if you could know something about a person's health and wellness status by listening to a person speak, watching how they move, looking at what they write, or observing how and what they create? For many health states, you can – particularly in neurology, psychiatry, cardiology, and communication disorders. Professor Pietrowicz's research first explores relationships between embodied and creative signals and seeks to build tools that can help screen for disease based on these highly available signals, particularly using speech and language signals. Second, it seeks to understand and model these highly expressive human signals. This both improves our understanding of human expression and improves modeling of systems that can detect disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, dementia, Parkinson’s, upper-GI disorders, dysphonia, and more. Third, my research seeks to improve, extend, and facilitate therapy for these disorders, particularly through novel, integrative approaches such as mindfulness and music, art, and movement therapy.