David Brennan
MBE
David Brennan, MBE, is director of Telehealth Initiatives for the MedStar Institute for Innovation (MI2). In addition, he holds an adjunct faculty position with the Catholic University of America School of Engineering, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Biomedical Engineering.
A prominent telehealth researcher with more than 15 years of experience, Mr. Brennan's work has centered on investigating ways to better integrate information and communication technologies into the delivery of healthcare to improve access, enhance outcomes and reduce cost. He has served as a primary investigator on research and development projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense and Department of Education that explored interactive computer-based tools for delivering telehealth interventions.
Mr. Brennan enjoys working at the apex of communications and technology and is excited about the ways videoconference-based telehealth, mobile health technology (mHealth) and electronic health technology (eHealth) can enhance patient care. Through his research and development projects, Mr. Brennan is forging new connections that allow patients to more actively participate in their care in collaboration with their healthcare providers. These advanced electronic and mobile tools allow patients to interactively exchange health information with their clinicians at any time or place.
By creatively advancing innovations in information and communications technology, Mr. Brennan is enabling MedStar to explore new methods of service delivery that facilitate and improve access to care, while reducing errors and enhancing efficiency. These new technologies can be used to coordinate patient care from emergency room and hospital admission, to rehabilitative care and follow-up at home. In short, these innovations are changing the way healthcare is delivered, providing improved ways to deliver care in urban, rural and underserved populations. By embedding data collection into care delivery, these advanced techniques are providing MedStar with data for new research opportunities. Mr. Brennan's unique background in healthcare, information and communications technology has prepared him to lead this effort.
Mr. Brennan has presented his research at national and international conferences and meetings and has written more than 30 articles on telehealth, telerehabilitation and human factors engineering. He is an active member of the American Telemedicine Association, where he serves on the Standards and Guidelines Committee and chaired the Telerehabilitation Standards and Guidelines Working Group. He was a coauthor on the 2010 Blueprint for Telerehabilitation Guidelines. His widespread participation in grant and journal review panels, conference committees, task forces and professional associations has made him well known throughout the telehealth and telerehabilitation communities.
Research Interests
Mr. Brennan's research interests include
- Telehealth and health information technology innovations, including integration of personal, mobile and social networking technologies
- Innovative healthcare delivery models
- Service technology and communication
- Human factors engineering
- User-centered design
- Health services research
- Connected health
- mHealth and eHealth
Selected Research
Remote treatment of individuals with brain injury
Mr. Brennan is leading a project to compare face-to-face care with remote treatment of individuals with brain injury. In this project, Mr. Brennan and his team are evaluating the equivalence of traditional face-to-face cognitive-communicative treatment for adult survivors of brain injury with treatment delivered remotely via telehealth technologies. The two methods will be compared relative to clinical outcomes, cost of care, access to care and patient satisfaction. Results from this study will be used to plan a Phase III non-inferiority clinical trial.
Medical rehabilitation
In another project, Mr. Brennan and his team are examining issues of adoption and use of patient-centered health technologies in medical rehabilitation. This project will investigate how advances in information and communication can be used to educate, empower and improve health for individuals with medical rehabilitation needs. Mr. Brennan and his team are collecting data to evaluate how rehabilitation patients use and perceive new health, information and communication tools to gain a deeper understanding of how this population perceives and values specific features and functions of advanced technologies.
Research Areas
- Health Services/Quality/Outcomes