Associate Professor
Unit: Health Outcomes Research and Policy
Auburn University
Harrison College of Pharmacy
4306b Walker Building
Auburn, AL 36849
Email: kbl0005@auburn.edu
Phone: 334-844-8360
Fax: 334-844-8307
Kimberly B. Garza, PharmD, MBA, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Health Outcomes Research and Policy at the Harrison College of Pharmacy. She is also the Graduate Program Officer for her department and is a past Faculty Fellow in the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at Auburn University. Dr. Garza’s primary research focuses on judgment and decision-making, risk communication, and the application of behavioral theory to study behaviors that minimize the progression of disease, including medication adherence, diet, and physical activity. Specifically, she utilizes incentive systems and immersive technologies, such as virtual reality and haptic devices, to influence health behaviors and perceptions of risk and severity of chronic diseases. She also applies these technologies, along with artificial intelligence, in the classroom to promote interviewing skills and foster empathy among student pharmacists for patients with chronic conditions. She collaborates with investigators from engineering, medicine, education, nursing, and psychology to study health behaviors related to heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, immunization, and prescription drug abuse. Her secondary research focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). She conducts educational research in the following areas: empathy-building activities, curricular development, deliberate practice, professional identity formation, peer coaching, and mentoring.
Dr. Garza's research collaborations also include community partners such as East Alabama Medical Center, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Georgia, Yale Medicine, and Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Garza is an active member of several national and international professional organizations, serving as past chair of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Research and Graduate Affairs Committee and past chair of the AACP Graduate Education Special Interest Group.
5/1/2025-4/30/2025
University of Alabama at Birmingham CCTS, funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Research of the National Institutes of Health (UM1TR004471)
Development and Pilot Testing of a Virtual Reality and Haptic Experience to Simulate Joint Stiffness
Using the principles of Design Thinking, this project aims to address translational barriers by involving patients in the design and pilot testing of a virtual reality (VR) tool, enhanced with haptic feedback, to improve patients’ understanding of disease progression in rheumatoid arthritis. This tool will allow patients to experience a realistic simulation of daily life with severe RA, including the effects of untreated symptoms and the benefits of treatment escalation.
Role: Principal Investigator
$30,000
8/22/2024-7/30/2029
National Institute for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
UAB BIGDATA - Building and InnovatinG Digital heAlth Technology and Analytics P30 Core Center for Clinical Research (CCCR)
This is a renewal of the 2020-2024 P30 grant. The purpose of the original P30 proposal was to harness health information technologies and make them available to support a broad base of investigators both within the institution, and externally to collaborating stakeholders. The objective of this proposal was to build on the existing P30 Core Center to improve the infrastructure and help to better design, collect, and analyze data from digital health studies, particularly with your new focus on minority populations and community outreach.
Role: Co-Investigator (Curtis, PI)
Funded for $3,411,788 (Subaward = $74,130)
9/1/2023-8/30/2024
Auburn University Biggio Center and Office of Informational Technology AUX Immersive Learning Experiences Grant
EmpathyVR: Expansion of a Haptics plus Virtual Reality Application to Promote Empathy for Patients with Chronic Diseases
The objective of this proposal is to further expand the virtual reality experience for student pharmacists that combines VR and haptic devices to simulate physical impairments experienced by patients with chronic diseases in order to build empathy and promote professional identity formation.
Role: PI
Funded for $33,280
7/1/2023-6/30/2024
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Grant
Incorporation of Virtual Reality in the Curriculum to Promote Empathy for Patients
The objective of this proposal is to measure the effect on student learning and learner satisfaction when incorporating a learning activity to promote empathy development that utilizes virtual reality and haptics into the PharmD curriculum.
Role: Principal Investigator
Funded for $4000
HORP 7510 Health Services Delivery and Evaluation (Fall)
HORP 7520 Social and Behavioral Theory in Health (Spring)
PYPD 9320 Longitudinal Experience I (Fall)
PYPD 9340 Longitudinal Experience III (Fall)
PYPD 9350 Longitudinal Experience IV (Spring)
PYPD 9370 Longitudinal Experience VI (Spring)
PYDI 9070 The Art of Wellbeing (Spring)
PYDI 9970 Immersive Technologies in Healthcare (Spring)
Currently serving as the HORP Graduate Program Officer
Ahmed Kamel (PhD candidate) – Co-advisor
Nick McCormick (PhD candidate)
Heqin Yang (PhD student)
Brandy Davis (PhD candidate)
Natalie Hohmann (PhD, 2019)
Heba Aref (MS, 2018)
Justin Owensby (PhD, 2017)
Thanasak Lertpichitkul (MS, 2015)