Question 01
How do you deliver health services that are tailored to chronic patients with genuinely different needs?
George Mason University
Y. Alicia Hong, PhD
Professor of Health Services Research · Department of Health Administration and Policy · College of Public Health
I study what happens when health services meet consumer technology — building and testing digital interventions for chronic care and self-care, and asking who those tools actually reach.
The questions driving the work
Three questions, one programme
Each project the lab runs is an attempt to answer one of these — with communities, in trials, and measured on who it actually reaches.
Question 02
How do evidence-based programmes get disseminated efficiently, and not just published?
Question 03
How can AI and low-cost digital tools support personalised self-care without widening the gaps that already exist?
About
An expert in behavioural interventions, working where health services delivery meets consumer informatics
My work explores chronic care and self-care solutions built on digital technology, with the aim of improving patient-centred outcomes and making care more reachable. In health services research that means implementation and dissemination science: how tailored, customisable services get built, how proven programmes travel, and how multilevel data can be used to allocate scarce resources sensibly.
In consumer health informatics it means the practical side of the same problem — improving adoption and sustained use of digital tools, and integrating patient-generated data with electronic health records so clinical decisions have more to work with.
Before joining Mason I was a professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health from 2007 to 2019. I received my PhD in Public Health from Johns Hopkins in 2007.
Current focus
Interventions in the field right now
Digital health interventions developed and evaluated with the people they are meant to serve: iCanFit for older cancer survivors, Run4Love for people living with HIV, WECARE for family caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and Stronger2 with racial and ethnic minority communities.
Across these studies the work has increased screening and vaccination rates, promoted physical activity, strengthened patient–provider communication, and connected families to social and community services.
Areas of expertise
- Behavioural intervention design and randomised evaluation
- Implementation and dissemination science
- Consumer health informatics and patient-generated data
- Community-engaged, user-centred design
- Digital divide and health equity measurement
- Health communication with immigrant and minority communities
Research interests
Four threads, one question
Each thread stands on its own, and each one exists because the others left something unanswered.
Featured projects
Currently funded work
Three of the projects the lab is running now. Since 2007 I have served as PI, Co-PI or Sub-PI on more than twenty large extramurally funded studies.
Ongoing
WECARE — personalised support for Chinese American dementia caregivers
A fully powered trial of a WeChat-delivered intervention, following two pilots that reduced depressive symptoms and caregiving burden with 96% retention.
- Funder
- National Institute on Aging (R01), $3,088,427
- Timeline
- 2025–2030
- Collaborators
- Dr. Lily Wang, Dr. Jessica Kim, community partners in the Washington metropolitan area
Ongoing
AI literacy through intergenerational digital storytelling
Older adults and younger family members make digital stories together; the collaboration is the setting for building both AI literacy and healthy scepticism.
- Funder
- National Science Foundation, award 2517316, $661,000
- Timeline
- 2025–2028
- Role
- Co-Principal Investigator
In development
EMBRACE — resilience in ageing communities
An interdisciplinary team connecting environmental health, behavioural science and sensing technology, because heat, air quality and isolation compound each other for older residents.
- Funder
- Mason Institute for Sustainable Earth, inaugural Network Catalyst Grant
- Timeline
- 2023–present
- Collaborators
- Dr. Amira Roess, Dr. Ali Weinstein, Dr. Siddhartha Sikdar
Selected publications
Four papers that mark the turns
Over 120 peer-reviewed articles to date. These four are the ones I would hand to someone asking where the programme changed direction.
Effect of a mobile health intervention on depressive symptoms in people living with HIV in China: the Run4Love randomized controlled trial
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(2):e16715
A WeChat-based intervention, Wellness Enhancement for Caregivers (WECARE), for Chinese American dementia caregivers: pilot assessment of feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy
JMIR Aging, 6:e42972
Assessment of eHealth behaviors in national surveys: a systematic review of instruments
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 25(12):1675–1684
Efficacy of a mobile-enabled web app (iCanFit) in promoting physical activity among older cancer survivors: a pilot study
JMIR Cancer, 1(1):e7
Latest news
What’s new
Grants, papers, talks and student milestones, tagged into five categories.
Teaching
Doctoral seminars and an MPH core course
I teach the parts of research training that are rarely taught explicitly: how to interrogate a body of literature, how to write for a journal, and how to translate a finding into something a policymaker can act on. Students in my systematic review seminar leave with a publishable manuscript, and many of them publish it.
The classroom runs on current material. In the health policy course, this week's political events are the case study, which keeps the analysis honest and the students awake.
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis for Health Services Research
Students conceptualise, conduct and write a publishable systematic review, including quality assessment and meta-analysis.
Health Services Research Seminar
Professional skills for dissemination and career development: presenting, publishing, translating research to policy.
Role of Government in Health Care and Public Health
Health policy and law: how and why federal and state governments act, and how to analyse what they do.
By the numbers
Academic record
120+
Peer-reviewed articles
20+
Funded research projects
150+
Conference presentations
7
Graduate courses developed
George Mason University commencement · College of Public Health
Get in touch
Collaborations, invitations and student enquiries
I read everything that arrives, and reply to most of it. A specific first message gets a faster answer than a general one.
- Research collaboration — digital health, caregiving, health services delivery
- Speaking and lectures — invited talks, panels, seminars
- Academic enquiries — peer review, editorial work, grant panels
- Student supervision — doctoral and master's applicants, please include a CV and a paragraph on what you want to study