Pamela Whitten

Dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and Professor, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media

287 Communication Arts, 517.355.3410

pwhitten@msu.edu

Pamela Whitten, Ph.D. is Dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Professor in the Department of Telecommunications.  In her faculty position, Dr. Whitten is responsible for conducting technology and health-related research, as well as teaching graduate and undergraduate courses.  Dr. Whitten research focuses on the use of technology in health care with specific interest in telehealth and its impact on the delivery of health care services and health education.    In addition to her work assessing the outcomes and impact of telemedicine, she also conducts research that examines innovative uses of mediated communication to reach underserved populations, such as the creation of health websites for adults with low literacy levels.

Recent research projects include offering telehospice and telehome care for COPD and CHAF patients, providing school-based telepsychiatry services to underserved children,  working to connect rural youth to their communities through communication technologies to encourage the development of social networks and the retention of youth in these rural communities, leading MSU as the telehealth research facility for the Midwest Alliance for Telehealth and Technology Resources (MATTeR), evaluating the development and implementation of the Upper Peninsula Health Care Network  through the Michigan Health Information Network project, and providing .  Dr. Whitten’s newest project is funded by NIH to develop telepsychiatry services for cancer patients in rural Indiana.

Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan State in 1998, Professor Whitten ran the telemedicine program for the State of Kansas through the University of Kansas Medical Center.