Inaugural Ph.D. Grad in Health Sciences Using Research to Improve Chronic Disease Management

ATLANTA - After a two-decade career in health analytics, Marci Bennafield (Ph.D. '26) has found a new passion for research and teaching.

And as the first graduate of Georgia State's Ph.D. program in Health Sciences, she's ready to put into practice her accumulated experiences.

Bennafield started as a part-time instructor in Georgia State's Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions in 2015 and now holds the rank of clinical instructor. With 22 years of experience in industry working in health informatics, for companies like IBM, Aetna and Thomson Scientific, she brings a wealth of understanding to the Lewis College's Department of Health Sciences, with a focus in health informatics.

The field of health informatics itself sits at the intersection of technology and healthcare service and delivery. Think electronic medical records, patient portals, mobile health apps (mHealth) and other digital health technologies that allow patients to better engage with providers and manage their healthcare.

Entering a new phase of her work as a researcher, Bennafield said the new Ph.D. in Health Sciences offered her a chance to develop a deep connection with research foundations she had only been peripherally connected to.

"It also helped me be a better instructor," she said. "I'm not a trained educator, so being a student helped make me a much better teacher and the program gave me an opportunity to more fully embrace research."

An Atlanta area native, Bennafield earned a bachelor's in healthcare management from Florida A&M and a Master of Public Health from Emory. Save for a couple of years in Connecticut and Chicago, she's called Atlanta home her whole life.

When the Lewis College started it's Ph.D. program in Health Sciences, Bennafield was among the first cohort of students and, this spring, became the first to complete it. She counts her mentor and dissertation committee chair Lynda T. Goodfellow, a professor emerita in respiratory therapy, as one of her biggest supporters.

"She encouraged me to start and consider a research topic I was passionate about, and that's the biggest step," Bennafield said.

Bennafield's dissertation research combined both her background in healthcare technology and her interest in respiratory care. In her dissertation, titled "Barriers and Facilitators to mHealth Adoption in African American Emerging Adults With Asthma," she examined how Black patients ages 18 to 29 are engaging, or not engaging, with healthcare apps aimed at improving self-management of their asthma.

Bennafield said a number of such apps exist, but providers may not suggest them to their patients because the providers aren't familiar with their outcomes and effectiveness.

"Many patients don't know about mHealth apps, and haven't been introduced to them," Bennafield said. "The biggest barrier to mHealth adoption was the value proposition."

While app-based continuous glucose monitors are seeing broad adoption for the treatment and maintenance of diabetes, the adoption of asthma apps is not as widespread, despite there being nearly 400 available between the App Store and Google Play.

Since finishing her dissertation and earning her Ph.D., Bennafield has been considering future research topics centered around technology adoption as she completes the pivot from industry to academia. She said her overarching goal is to improve health outcomes and increase equity.

"Being right in the middle of a cutting-edge, R1 research university and seeing all that's happening, it's exciting for me to see the impact we can have with research," she said. "It gives me an opportunity to impact health in a different way than I did in industry."