Citing an analogy used by those in public health fields, Tina Bloom explains that health providers wait on the banks of the river to rescue people who have fallen in and are drowning. But Bloom wants to help more and help earlier. “At some point, you start to think about what’s happening upriver,” she says. As an assistant professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing, her research focuses on safety planning for women in abusive relationships; specifically, she is designing and testing a website that might help women find ways to lessen their danger.

When complete, the decision aid will be available in physicians' offices, libraries, and other safe places where women can find and use it. Bloom’s study will monitor how often women use the interactive, individualized website as compared with a control group using a more static website, as well as document their exposures to violence and their mental health outcomes.