Dr. Abujarad’s primary research focus is in digital health. Currently, Dr. Abujarad is utilizing Digital Health to improve patient health outcomes while decreasing costs and unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits. His specific research interests focus on the area of Digital Health, Gerontechnology, Elder Mistreatment, Informed Consent, and systems that provide real-time background searches. His overarching aim is to apply his in-depth knowledge and methodological expertise to address major health disparities in the older adult population by developing technologies that optimize the human interface of complex systems.

VOICES is a digital health intervention designed to assist older adults with self-identifying and self-reporting mistreatment with confidence and discretion in clinical care settings such as the emergency department and primary care clinic. Led by a team of experts in the fields of geriatrics, intimate partner violence, emergency medicine and health information technology, the tool utilizes virtual coaching and interactive multimedia libraries (e.g. graphics, video clips, animations, etc.) along with Brief Negotiated Interviewing (BNI) psychoeducational techniques to guide older adults through an educational screening process for mistreatment. To date, VOICES has been involved in multiple studies to examine the usability and feasibility of the intervention with older adults 60 and above with or without cognitive impairments.