Over 5 decades, Dr Mahoney has championed innovative roles for nurses and programs to better the lives of both patients/consumers/older adults and their family helpers. She has significant clinical expertise as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner who established amid much medical society opposition Massachusetts' first community- based health center for older adults licensed under NP not MD directorship.
Her innovative outreach programs and integrated home and hospital linkage work there won Mahoney the National NP of the Year Award in Community Health. Experiencing regulatory policy barriers in her practice, she earned her Doctorate in Social Policy and conducted award winning VA health services sponsored research that ultimately supported authorizing prescriptive authority for NPs. She joined academia to lead GNP program development to attain initial program accreditation. Subsequently Mahoney was asked by the NLN to author a Chapter on the first GNP Curriculum model. Concurrently Mahoney established her innovative successful research track record studying dyads of frail older adults and their family caregivers. This advanced into specializing in memory loss, specifically with people with Alzheimer's disease. Realizing the advent of technology permeating into daily life and the ageism expressed in this field, she championed for technology solutions and aging adaptations, by becoming a Gerontechnologist.
In 2009, as the first woman in the U.S. and sole nurse in the International Society of Gerontechnology (ISG), she learned how to expand her research into this field. Ultimately, Mahoney became an Internationally acclaimed innovator and Leading-Edge award winner for her remote monitoring sensor- based interventions that interactively tailored to the end-users' preferences. Her publications have been acknowledged as scholarly and impactful in the literary indexes. Since retirement Mahoney continues to serve primarily as a Consultant and Grant Reviewer, as well as a Subject Matter Expert Grant reviewer for the US National Academy of Medicine and the American Federation of Aging Research Healthy Longevity Global Competitions.
- PhD, Heller School for Social Policy and Management (Research concentration in health policy and gerontology), Brandeis University, 1989
- MS, Nursing (Gerontological Nursing, CNS / GNP), UMass/Lowell College of Health Professions, 1980
- BSN, Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, 1969
- Gerontological Nursing: Aging optimally, elder health education, GNP role expansion
- Gerontechnology research and development - technology for use by and for aging persons
- Ethical guidelines for technology R&D
- Nurse Practitioner role: policy facilitators and barriers to prescribing practices
- Cross cultural family caregiving of older adults
These papers were chosen to reflect the body of original research and policy work accomplished over 5 decades of efforts. Diane Mahoney has 100 publications - 80 original research and 20 book chapters, position papers, and/or published conference papers with approximately 6000 citations.
See publications before 1994/5 in Mahoney's CV.
Diane Mahoney has given over several hundred presentations. Highlights:
Ethical issues Related to Developing Assistive Technologies for Older Adults: Doing Good, Not Harm. 3/16/22 MIT Engineering Consortium Seminar. In person and Zoom interdisciplinary webinar
NIH/NIA Butler Williams Research Scholars Training Program, Plenary Session: Leadership, grant management, and more! And a Breakout session: Research Career Development and grantsmanship. Annually 2000-2019 Summer Research Training Institute, Volunteer Faculty member at NIH Campus, Bethesda Md.
Vigilance - A measure for the CARE ACT requirement for Caregiver Screening and Gero-Technology: e-Health and Home-Based Care, National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence Leadership Conference on Aging 11/13/14
Environmental Design of a Dutch Assisted Living Village and Mahoney's Adoption of Home Monitoring Predictive Model, MASS Executive Office of Elder Affairs Dementia Friendly America - Massachusetts Program on expanding age and dementia friendly communities. 11/9/17.
Development of a Responsive Emotive Sensing System (DRESS) "Smart Dresser" to enable Dressing by Persons with Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Awareness Week conference, Glasgow, Scotland. Visiting Scholar 6/1/2015.
Annual research presenter at the Gerontological Society of America X 50 yrs; and numerous times at The International Society of Gerontechnology, Alzheimer's Association, Nursing, and guest speaker at professional and lay associations