Diane M. Strong| Worcester Polytechnic Institute

WPI provides an environment that values both teaching and research, which is ideal for me. I enjoy teaching at WPI because students are interested in learning and willing to work hard. My teaching focuses on how business, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations can best use computing technologies, such as database systems, electronic health records systems, and mobile apps. Students in my classes learn to design computing applications that meet the needs of organizations. Students understand the value of learning these topics, and as a result, they work hard to learn the principles and how to apply them to real organizational problems.

I also enjoy working closely with student teams on their MQP and IQP projects, which I help them set up in sponsoring organizations. For example, one of my IQP teams developed a multilingual website for the Family Health Center of Worcester. One of my MQP teams developed a prototype dashboard for executives at The Hanover Group to help them monitor progress of computer application development projects. Another MQP team did a data analytics project for a healthcare organization that examined its physician-patient communication patterns on the patient portal. These projects involve students in finding solutions to current problems in organizations, and they keep me up-to-date with the computing concerns of organizations.

My research program supports my teaching interests. I work with organizations to help them determine how best to use computing technologies. With funding from the National Science Foundation, I and an interdisciplinary team of researchers studied of how healthcare providers can use electronic health records systems to improve the quality of, and access to healthcare, while also reducing costs. Another NSF funded project is developing a diabetes support app. The executives I meet through my research often come to WPI to talk in student classes. My students have the most recent information about how computing technologies are being used in organizations because I integrate the knowledge gained from my research into my teaching.

Visit Digital WPI to view student projects advised by Professor Strong.

Scholarly Work

Professor Strong researches the most effective ways that businesses, nonprofits and healthcare organizations can use computing technologies such as database systems, electronic health records systems, and mobile apps.

Full list of publications in Google Scholar

Featured works:

Liu, Z., Agu, E., Pedersen, P., Lindsay, C., Tulu, B., & Strong, D. (2021). Comprehensive Assessment of Fine-Grained Wound Images Using a Patch-Based CNN With Context-Preserving Attention. IEEE open journal of engineering in medicine and biology, 2, 224-234.

Strong, D. M., Volkoff, O., Johnson, S. A., Pelletier, L. R., Tulu, B., Bar-On, I., ... & Garber, L. (2014). A theory of organization-EHR affordance actualization. Journal of the association for information systems, 15(2), 2.

Volkoff, O., & Strong, D. M. (2013). Critical realism and affordances: Theorizing IT-associated organizational change processes. MIS quarterly, 819-834.

Strong, D. M., & Volkoff, O. (2010). Understanding Organization—Enterprise system fit: A path to theorizing the information technology artifact. MIS quarterly, 731-756.

Volkoff, O., Strong, D. M., & Elmes, M. B. (2007). Technological embeddedness and organizational change. Organization science, 18(5), 832-848.

Lee, Y. W., Strong, D. M., Kahn, B. K., & Wang, R. Y. (2002). AIMQ: a methodology for information quality assessment. Information & management, 40(2), 133-146.

Wang, R. Y., & Strong, D. M. (1996). Beyond accuracy: What data quality means to data consumers. Journal of management information systems, 12(4), 5-33.

Professional Highlights & Honors

AIS Fellow, 2017

Associate Editor MIS Quarterly (MISQ), 2017-2022

Chief Data Officer Magazine, List of Leading Academic Data Leaders:, 2021

AIS Americas Conference Chair, 2017

WPI Trustees, Chair's Exemplary Faculty Award, 2017

WPI Trustees Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship, 2014

Sigma Xi The Scientific Research Society, 2008

Sigma Beta Delta Business and Management Honor Society, 1997

Beta Gamma Sigma Business and Management Honor Society, 1990

Society for Information Management Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 1983

Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computer Science Honor Society, 1977

Phi Beta Kappa, 1974

Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society, 1974

Media Coverage

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Diversity in Action

Business Sense: WPI's Master's Program Merges IT with Analytics for Real-World Applications

Diane Strong, department head and professor of information technology and data science, spoke with Diversity in Action magazine about WPI's revised Master's in Information Technology program. (pg. 70). "Starting at the intersection of technology, business and people, we prepare our students to become leaders, to think simultaneously about what businesses need, how to answer that with innovative tech solutions and then deliver intuitive, easy-to-use products and programs," she said.

Worcester Business Journal

WPI granted $1.6M to develop wound-care app

The Worcester Business Journal reported on work funded by a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a new smartphone app to monitor chronic wounds. The work is led by Emmanuel Agu, associate professor of computer science and coordinator of WPI’s Mobile Graphics Research Group, with co-principal investigators professor Diane Strong and associate professor Bengisu Tulu, both of the Foisie Business School, and Peder Pedersen, a retired professor of electrical and computer engineering.