Judith Haber

Faculty

Judith Haber headshot

Judith Haber

APRN-BC FAAN PhD

Professor Emerita

1 212 998 9020

433 FIRST AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10010
United States

Dr. Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, FAAN is Professor Emerita at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (NYU Meyers). From 1997-2022, she held significant leadership roles as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, Interim Dean, and Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing. 

Dr. Haber is the Executive Director of a national nursing oral health initiative, the Oral Health Nursing Education Practice (OHNEP) Program, funded by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health Advancement, and was the Principal Investigator on the HRSA-funded program, Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH). Dr. Haber is the lead author of the landmark (2015) AJPH publication, Putting the Mouth Back in the Head:  HEENT to HEENOT. Since 2005, Dr. Haber has been an NYU leader of interprofessional education and practice, with a special focus on oral-systemic health, collaborating with interprofessional partners at NYU College of Dentistry, NYU School of Medicine, and LIU School of Pharmacy. 

As Executive Director of OHNEP, Dr. Haber is a Core Partner of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH). She was a member of the HRSA Expert Panel that developed the 2014 Interprofessional Oral Health Core Competencies for Primary Care Providers and a member of the Technical Expert Panel that developed the 2015 Qualis Health White Paper, Oral Health: An Essential Component of Primary Care. She also contributed to the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) 2022 report, Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges. Dr. Haber has been invited to join numerous Advisory Boards, including the Veteran’s Administration (VA) NVHAP National Advisory Board, the Primary Care Collaborative National Steering Committee on Shared Principles, the CIPCOH 100 Million Mouths Advisory Board, the National Medically Necessary Medicare Dental Benefit Consortium, and the National Maternal Child Oral Health Think Tank.  Dr. Haber has consulted, presented and published widely on interprofessional education and practice as well as oral-systemic health issues. 

Dr. Haber is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the New York Academy of Medicine and a Board Member of the Santa Fe Group. She is the 2011 recipient of the NYU Distinguished Teaching Award, 2014 NYU Meritorious Service Award, the 2015 Sigma Theta Tau International Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice, the 2017 DentaQuest Health Equity Hero Award and in 2019, the OHNEP Program received an Edge Runner Award from the American Academy of Nursing.

Dr. Haber also has been an internationally recognized leader in psychiatric nursing for the past 40 years. She was the author of the award-winning, classic textbook, Comprehensive Psychiatric Nursing, published for 8 editions and translated into 5 languages. She was the recipient of the ANA Hildegarde Peplau Award and a two-time awardee of the APNA Psychiatric Nurse of the Year Award. Consistent with the current emphasis on integrating behavioral health in primary care, Dr. Haber has been a longtime advocate of the integration of mental health and physical health and has published widely on this topic. 

She is also a recognized expert in evidence-based practice and co-author of two award winning nursing research texts, Nursing Research: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-based Practice, now in its 10th edition and translated into 5 languages, and Evidence-Based Practice for Nursing and Healthcare Quality Improvement.

Dr. Haber played a leadership role as Co-Principal Investigator and Principal Investigator on a series of NIH funded studies, including an R15 and RO1 investigating the effect of psychoeducational and counseling interventions on physical, emotional, and social adjustment of women with breast cancer and their partners, as well as Co-Principal Investigator on a qualitative study investigating the experience of survivorship for women with breast cancer. The findings of these studies have been disseminated in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, local and national presentations, and are frequently cited in the literature. This program of research also resulted in an award-winning four-part DVD series, Journey to Recovery: For Women with Breast Cancer and Their Partners and a book, Breast Cancer: Journey to Recovery.

 

PhD - New York University (1984)
MA - New York University (1967)
BS - Adelphi University (1965)

Mental health
Interprofessionalism
Oral-systemic health

American Academy of Nursing
American Association of Nurse Practitioners
American Nurses Association
Connecticut Nurses Association
Gerontological Society of America
National League for Nursing
New York Academy of Medicine
Santa Fe Group
Sigma Theta Tau-Alpha Omega and Upsilon Chapters

Edge Runner Award, American Academy of Nursing (2019)
Senior Scholar, Santa Fe Group (2018)
Denta Quest Health Equity Hero Awrd (2017)
Distinguished Teaching Award, New York University (2011)
Excellence in Cancer Nursing Research Award, Oncology Nursing Society (2009)
Distinguished Alumni Award, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (2008)
Excellence in Research Award, American Psychiatric Nurses Association (2005)
Psychiatric Nurse of the Year Award, American Psychiatric Nurses Association (2005)

The Interprofessional Role in Dental Caries Management: Impact of the Nursing Profession in Early Childhood Caries

Haber, J., & Hartnett, E. (2019). Dental Clinics of North America, 63(4), 653-661. 10.1016/j.cden.2019.05.002
Abstract
Abstract
Early childhood caries is a major unmet population health care need that negatively affects the overall health of children, especially those from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds and disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. Nurses and midwives who work with pregnant women to nurses and nurse practitioners who work with young children and their families have an opportunity to positively influence the health of these populations. Primary care settings are ideal for integrating oral health into the overall health care of children and adolescents. The nursing profession is well positioned to have a positive impact on oral health and, in so doing, their overall health.

Mental health and substance use disorders in patients diagnosed with cancer: An integrative review of healthcare utilization

Woersching, J., Van Cleave, J. H., Haber, J., & Chyun, D. (2019). Oncology Nursing Forum, 46(3), 365-383. 10.1188/19.ONF.365-383
Abstract
Abstract
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION: The impact of mental health disorders (MHDs) and substance use disorders (SUDs) on healthcare utilization (HCU) in patients with cancer is an understudied phenomenon. LITERATURE SEARCH: A literature search of studies published prior to January 2018 that examined HCU in patients with preexisting MHDs or SUDs diagnosed with cancer was conducted. DATA EVALUATION: The research team evaluated 22 studies for scientific rigor and examined significant trends in HCU, as well as types of the MHD, SUD, and cancer studied. SYNTHESIS: The heterogeneity of HCU outcome measures, MHD, SUD, sample sizes, and study settings contributed to inconsistent study findings. However, study trends indicated higher rates of HCU by patients with depression and lower rates of HCU by patients with schizophrenia. In addition, the concept of HCU measures is evolving, addressing not only volume of health services, but also quality and efficacy. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: Oncology nurses are essential to improving HCU in patients with MHDs and SUDs because of their close connections with patients throughout the stages of cancer care. Additional prospective studies are needed to examine specific MHDs and different types of SUDs beyond alcohol use, improving cancer care and the effectiveness of HCU in this vulnerable population.

Integrating oral health curricula into nurse practitioner graduate programs: Results of a US survey

Dolce, M. C., Haber, J., Savageau, J. A., Hartnett, E., & Riedy, C. A. (2018). Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(11), 638-647. 10.1097/JXX.0000000000000079
Abstract
Abstract
Background and purpose: Nurse practitioners (NPs) are a significant segment of the US primary care workforce and have a pivotal role in improving access to oral health (OH) care. The purpose of this research was to assess OH curricular integration in primary care NP programs and to examine factors that influence integration and satisfaction with graduates’ level of OH competence. Methods: A cross-sectional, national survey of NP programs (N = 466) was conducted using an electronically distributed 19-item, self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis included univariate, bivariate, multivariate statistics, and logistic regression modeling. Conclusions: The large majority of pediatric, family, and adult–gerontology primary care programs are educating NP graduates about OH. Significant factors promoting integration and satisfaction with graduates’ level of competence included the presence of a faculty champion and routine teaching by a dental professional or nondental OH expert. Implications for practice: With adequate OH education, NPs are ideally positioned to integrate OH and primary care services in practice, thereby, improving access to OH care.

Machine learning for detection of lymphedema among breast cancer survivors

Fu, M., Wang, Y., LI, C., Qiu, Z., Axelrod, D., Guth, A. A., Scagliola, J., Conley, Y. P., Aouizerat, B., Qiu, J. M., Yu, G., Van Cleave, J., Haber, J., & Cheung, Y. K. (2018). MHealth, 4. 10.21037/mhealth.2018.04.02
Abstract
Abstract
Background: In the digital era when mHealth has emerged as an important venue for health care, the application of computer science, such as machine learning, has proven to be a powerful tool for health care in detecting or predicting various medical conditions by providing improved accuracy over conventional statistical or expert-based systems. Symptoms are often indicators for abnormal changes in body functioning due to illness or side effects from medical treatment. Real-time symptom report refers to the report of symptoms that patients are experiencing at the time of reporting. The use of machine learning integrating real-time patient-centered symptom report and real-time clinical analytics to develop real-time precision prediction may improve early detection of lymphedema and long term clinical decision support for breast cancer survivors who face lifelong risk of lymphedema. Lymphedema, which is associated with more than 20 distressing symptoms, is one of the most distressing and dreaded late adverse effects from breast cancer treatment. Currently there is no cure for lymphedema, but early detection can help patients to receive timely intervention to effectively manage lymphedema. Because lymphedema can occur immediately after cancer surgery or as late as 20 years after surgery, real-time detection of lymphedema using machine learning is paramount to achieve timely detection that can reduce the risk of lymphedema progression to chronic or severe stages. This study appraised the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity to detect lymphedema status using machine learning algorithms based on real-time symptom report.Methods: A web-based study was conducted to collect patients' real-time report of symptoms using a mHealth system. Data regarding demographic and clinical information, lymphedema status, and symptom features were collected. A total of 355 patients from 45 states in the US completed the study. Statistical and machine learning procedures were performed for data analysis. The performance of five renowned classification algorithms of machine learning were compared: Decision Tree of C4.5, Decision Tree of C5.0, gradient boosting model (GBM), artificial neural network (ANN), and support vector machine (SVM). Each classification algorithm has certain user-definable hyper parameters. Five-fold cross validation was used to optimize these hyper parameters and to choose the parameters that led to the highest average cross validation accuracy.Results: Using machine leaning procedures comparing different algorithms is feasible. The ANN achieved the best performance for detecting lymphedema with accuracy of 93.75%, sensitivity of 95.65%, and specificity of 91.03%.Conclusions: A well-trained ANN classifier using real-time symptom report can provide highly accurate detection of lymphedema. Such detection accuracy is significantly higher than that achievable by current and often used clinical methods such as bio-impedance analysis. Use of a well-trained classification algorithm to detect lymphedema based on symptom features is a highly promising tool that may improve lymphedema outcomes.

The impact of oral-systemic health on advancing interprofessional education outcomes

Haber, J., Hartnett, E., Allen, K., Crowe, R., Adams, J., Bella, A., Riles, T., & Vasilyeva, A. (2017). Journal of Dental Education, 81(2), 140-148.
Abstract
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the ettectiveness ot an interprofessional education (IPE) clinical simulation and case study experience, using oral-systemic health as the clinical population health example, for nurse practitioner/midwifery, dental, and medical students' self-reported attainment of interprofessional competencies. A pretest-posttest evaluation method was employed, using data from the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (ICCAS) completed by two large cohorts of nurse practitioner/midwifery, dental, and medical students at one U.S. university. Data from faculty facilitators were collected to assess their perceptions of the value of exposing students to interprofessional clinical simulation experiences focused on oral-systemic health. The results showed that self-reported interprofessional competencies measured by the ICCAS improved significantly from pre- to posttest for all three student types in 2013 (p<0.001) and 2014 (p<0.001). Faculty facilitators reported that the IPE clinical simulation experiences were valuable and positively influenced interprofessional communication, collaboration, patient communication, and student understanding of patient care roles. These results suggest that the Teaching Oral-Systemic Health Program Interprofessional Oral-Systemic Health Clinical Simulation and Case Study Experience was effective as a standardized, replicable curriculum unit using oral-systemic health as a population health exemplar to teach and assess interprofessional competencies with nurse practitioner/midwifery, dental, and medical students.

Oral Health in Pregnancy

Hartnett, E., Haber, J., Krainovich-Miller, B., Bella, A., Vasilyeva, A., & Lange Kessler, J. (2016). JOGNN - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 45(4), 565-573. 10.1016/j.jogn.2016.04.005
Abstract
Abstract
Oral health is crucial to overall health. Because of normal physiologic changes, pregnancy is a time of particular vulnerability in terms of oral health. Pregnant women and their providers need more knowledge about the many changes that occur in the oral cavity during pregnancy. In this article we describe the importance of the recognition, prevention, and treatment of oral health problems in pregnant women. We offer educational strategies that integrate interprofessional oral health competencies.

Haber et al. respond

Haber, J., Hartnett, E., Allen, K., Hallas, D., Dorsen, C., Lange-Kessler, J., Lloyd, M., Thomas, E., & Wholihan, D. (2015, May 1). In American journal of public health (Vols. 105, Issues 5, pp. e3-e4). 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302648

Patterns of obesity and lymph fluid level during the first year of breast cancer treatment: A prospective study

Fu, M. R., Axelrod, D., Guth, A. A., Fletcher, J., Qiu, J. M., Scagliola, J., Kleinman, R., Ryan, C. E., Chan, N., & Haber, J. (2015). Journal of Personalized Medicine, 5(3), 326-340. 10.3390/jpm5030326
Abstract
Abstract
Obesity is one of the risk factors for developing lymphedema following breast cancer treatment. We prospectively enrolled 140 women and followed the participants for 12 months after surgery to investigate patterns of obesity and lymph fluid level in the first year of cancer treatment. Electrical bioimpedance devices were used to measure weight, BMI, and percent of body fat as well as lymph fluid level. General instructions were given to the participants on maintaining pre-surgery weight. Among the 140 participants, 136 completed the study with 2.9% attrition. More than 60% of the participants were obese (30.8%) or overweight (32.4%), while only two participants were underweight and about 35% had normal weight. This pattern of obesity and overweight was consistent at 4–8 weeks and 12 months post-surgery. At 12 months post-surgery, the majority of the women (72.1%) maintained pre-surgery weight and 15.4% had >5% weight loss; 12.5% of the women increase >5% of their weight. Significantly more patients in the obesity group had lymphedema defined by L-Dex ratio >7.1 than those in the normal/underweight and overweight group at pre-surgery and 4–8 weeks post-surgery. There was a trend of more patients in the obesity group had L-Dex ratio >7.1 at 12 months post-surgery. Obesity and overweight remain among women at the time of cancer diagnosis and the patterns of obesity and overweight continue during the first year of treatment. General instructions on having nutrition-balanced and portion-appropriate diet and physical activities daily or weekly can be effective to maintain pre-surgery weight.

Putting the mouth back in the head: HEENT to HEENOT

Haber, J., Hartnett, E., Allen, K., Hallas, D., Dorsen, C., Lange-Kessler, J., Lloyd, M., Thomas, E., & Wholihan, D. (2015). American Journal of Public Health, 105(3), 437-441. 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302495
Abstract
Abstract
Improving oral health is a leading population health goal; however, curricula preparing health professionals have a dearth of oral health content and clinical experiences.We detail an educational and clinical innovation transitioning the traditional head, ears, eyes, nose, and throat (HEENT) examination to the addition of the teeth, gums, mucosa, tongue, and palate examination (HEENOT) for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of oral-systemic health. Many New York University nursing, dental, and medical faculty and students have been exposed to interprofessional oral health HEENOT classroom, simulation, and clinical experiences. This was associated with increased dental-primary care referrals.This innovation has potential to build interprofessional oral health workforce capacity that addresses a significant public health issue, increases oral health care access, and improves oral-systemic health across the lifespan.

Symptom report in detecting breast cancer-related lymphedema

Fu, M. R., Axelrod, D., Cleland, C. M., Qiu, Z., Guth, A. A., Kleinman, R., Scagliola, J., & Haber, J. (2015). Breast Cancer: Targets and Therapy, 7, 345-352. 10.2147/BCTT.S87854
Abstract
Abstract
Breast cancer-related lymphedema is a syndrome of abnormal swelling coupled with multiple symptoms resulting from obstruction or disruption of the lymphatic system associated with cancer treatment. Research has demonstrated that with increased number of symptoms reported, breast cancer survivors’ limb volume increased. Lymphedema symptoms in the affected limb may indicate a latent stage of lymphedema in which changes cannot be detected by objective measures. The latent stage of lymphedema may exist months or years before overt swelling occurs. Symptom report may play an important role in detecting lymphedema in clinical practice. The purposes of this study were to: 1) examine the validity, sensitivity, and specificity of symptoms for detecting breast cancer-related lymphedema and 2) determine the best clinical cutoff point for the count of symptoms that maximized the sum of sensitivity and specificity. Data were collected from 250 women, including healthy female adults, breast cancer survivors with lymphedema, and those at risk for lymphedema. Lymphedema symptoms were assessed using a reliable and valid instrument. Validity, sensitivity, and specificity were evaluated using logistic regression, analysis of variance, and areas under receiver operating characteristic curves. Count of lymphedema symptoms was able to differentiate healthy adults from breast cancer survivors with lymphedema and those at risk for lymphedema. A diagnostic cutoff of three symptoms discriminated breast cancer survivors with lymphedema from healthy women with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 97% (area under the curve =0.98). A diagnostic cutoff of nine symptoms discriminated at-risk survivors from survivors with lymphedema with a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 80% (area under the curve =0.72). In the absence of objective measurements capable of detecting latent stages of lymphedema, count of symptoms may be a cost-effective initial screening tool for detecting lymphedema.