Dan Morrow - Beckman Institute Human Perception and Performance Group

Dan Morrow is a Professor in the Department of Human Factors, an interdisciplinary unit at Illinois that explores human behavior as it relates to systems. Morrows innovative work currently focuses on two seemingly different areas of research: aviation and health care.

The common denominator for Morrow is the link between communication and cognitive processes in complex domains, with a focus on the roles of communication and cognition in older adults everyday task performance.

Morrows research doesnt just explore these issues; he also develops what are called external memory aids that seek to improve communication for older adults in task performance. In aviation that means he is developing external aids that would benefit pilots, especially older pilots who may have suffered cognitive decline.

In the healthcare field, Morrow has created a medication table (medtable) to help older adults with complex drug regimens adhere to their drug-taking schedule. Morrow was part of a National Institutes of Health-funded project that addressed the problems older adults have with self-care by improving the design of health care materials; the medication table came out of that project and now Morrow has improved the design and initiated clinical trials to study its effectiveness in a real-world setting.

In his video interview, Morrow talks about the importance of external memory aids and his development of a medication table for older adults with complicated drug regimens.

©2008 Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign