The Department of Epidemiology and Public Health will host David Gustafson, research professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on Thursday, July 1 at 12 p.m. in the Broad-Bussell Auditorium in the Clinical Research Building. Gustafson’s presentation will focus on a National Cancer Institute-funded randomized clinical trial examining the impact on patient symptom recovery, quality of life, and survival yielded by utilization of a computer-based system (CHESS) designed to support family caregivers of lung cancer patients. CHESS includes interventions designed to improve family caregiver competence, relatedness, and autonomy. In addition to supporting caregivers while patients are alive, CHESS helps address caregiver bereavement during the first year after a patient’s death.

Gustafson will also speak about the future role of laptops and mobile devices in such interventions. In addition to his position at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gustafson serves as director of the National Cancer Institute-designated Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications and director of the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the federal government’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. He is co-leading a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program, Advancing Recovery, to implement evidence-based practices in addiction-treatment agencies and state governments. For more information, please contact Katie Lewitt at [email protected].

Antonio Acosta, graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Miller School of Medicine, will present a doctoral dissertation seminar on the “Relationship Between RNase H and Excision Activities of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase (RT)” on Thursday, July 1 at 12 p.m. in the Gautier Building, Room 118.