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  “My goal has always been that people can stay in their homes, rather than go to a nursing home.”

  Machiko Tomita

  Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Science

By ANN WHITCHER-GENTZKE

Published: April 1, 2009

Everywhere in Machiko Tomita’s Kimball Tower office are signs of her passions and personality—a round table to facilitate intense discussion about research, an orchid reminiscent of her native Japan, a painting by a nursing home resident.

“Here you have the sky, trees and what I think are flowers,” Tomita says of a watercolor by Arthur Cady. “I can feel that he’s enjoying looking at the outdoors from his bed by the window. I don’t know how many people paid attention to this painting, but I just love it. I love to appreciate art. I wanted to be a painter, but my mom said, ‘You better be something else,’” she says, laughing.

Tomita, clinical associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science, School of Public Health and Health Professions, does paint for personal enjoyment: Her still life adorns a nearby filing cabinet. But these days her real canvas is about making a difference in the lives of elderly people. “My goal has always been that people can stay in their homes, rather than go to a nursing home,” she says.

In Tomita’s pilot study funded by the National Institute on Aging, 40 elderly people in Western New York—living at home and suffering from congestive heart failure—were taught basic use of the computer. Over the next year, they took part in daily health-monitoring exercises on a secure Web site, recording vital signs and responding to questions on health behavior, including medication use, exercise, fatigue and salt intake.

By taking a few minutes to complete the health log, participants were able to recognize the cause and effect of various practices, Tomita says. They also received emotional support to lessen social isolation, plus automatic alerts when sudden weight gain (indicative of dangerous fluid retention) signaled them to contact their physician.

“In the treatment group, we didn’t lose any [patient] due to congestive heart failure. We did lose several people in the control group due to congestive heart failure,” Tomita says of this chronic and debilitating condition. It is, moreover, the most expensive illness facing Americans 65 and older because of recurring hospital stays and frequent emergency room visits.

Results of the pilot study were published recently in the online Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare. Tomita now is applying for a second grant to develop this research with 600 participants and three sites in Buffalo, Texas and Virginia.

She says it’s a misconception that older people don’t use computers; this fact holds promise for the study’s long-term implications. “Once a computer becomes available to them, the use pattern is the same as for younger people.”

Tomita first acquired her passion for research as a young journalism student at Sophia University in Tokyo. She went on to earn an M.A. in mass communication and a Ph.D. in social research, both from the University of Minnesota. She has published numerous journal articles and has advised or mentored scores of students since arriving at UB in 1992. Currently, she supervises the work of eight graduate students—watching them grow is like seeing flowers bloom, she says.

“One student who knew nothing about research when she came here has published a paper with me and is now writing a second paper to publish. The students involved in research become more responsible—they start paying more attention to detail and they become more logical. They can start seeing what they are doing objectively. This is amazing, isn’t it?”