Josephine R. Orejana

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About

Dr. Josephine R. Orejana is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of gerontechnology, rural healthcare, and human-robot interaction. Her work focuses on deploying robotic systems to address the acute healthcare disparities faced by isolated older adults in rural communities. Dr. Orejana’s landmark study, “Healthcare Robots in Homes of Rural Older Adults” (42 citations), provides compelling qualitative evidence through four case studies demonstrating how robots can mitigate social isolation and assist with chronic disease management. She further established the economic viability of this approach in her pivotal cost-effectiveness analysis (27 citations), which tested a robot’s ability to measure routine vital signs in a rural family medicine clinic. This work is among the first to empirically validate that robotic assistance can reduce healthcare delivery costs in underserved settings. By combining rigorous feasibility studies with human-centered design, Dr. Orejana has laid critical groundwork for scalable, technology-driven solutions that bridge the gap between rural patients and essential medical care, making her a leading voice in the future of equitable, robot-assisted healthcare.