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Janet Prvu Bettger

Adjunct Associate in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Orthopaedic Surgery
311 Trent Drive, Durham, NC 27710

Outreach & Engaged Scholarship


Bass Connections Team Leader - Help Desk: Scaling Volunteer Models that Address Patients' Social Needs · 2020 - 2021 Projects & Field Work Global Health
Bass Connections Team Leader - Help Desk: A Student Initiative to Help Address the Social Determinants of Health · 2019 - 2020 Projects & Field Work flag North Carolina Global Health
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Developing a Mobile Phone-based Community Health Program for Hypertension Control in Nepal · 2018 - 2019 Projects & Field Work flag Nepal

Primary Theme: Global Health

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths and disability in many low-and middle-income countries, including Nepal. Prevention of cardiovascular diseases demands innovative solutions through multidisciplinary and multifaceted approaches. Nepal’s female community health volunteer program has been in place for three decades. Duke researchers have conducted a trial to successfully extend the roles of these volunteers from primarily maternal and child health interventions to include hypertension, a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. With a nearly 100% mobile phone ownership rate in the country, Nepal’s Ministry of Health has prioritized mobile health (mHealth) interventions. Medic Mobile has received support to scale up its feature-phone-based (non-smartphone) program to thousands of female community health volunteers to address prenatal care and maternal health. This Bass Connections project will collaborate with these partners to develop design insights and feature-phone-based programs, which will create a foundation for interventions with the potential to make a significant impact on hypertension prevention and control.

Bass Connections Faculty Team Leader - Data+ Project Lead · 2018 Projects & Field Work

Primary Theme: Information, Society & Culture

Bass Connections Faculty Team Leader - Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation · 2018 - 2019 Projects & Field Work

Primary Theme: Global Health

Although 15% of the world’s population has some form of disability, the system of public health and health services is not adequately organized to promote independence. Even the most developed and well-resourced nations have medically underserved regions and communities where the presence of disability is compounded by inequities in social determinants of health. In 2016, the Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation (GANDHI) launched to engage students, faculty, the Duke community and external partners to examine the system supporting transitions in health and healthcare for people who experience an acute illness or injury and are newly living with disability. With almost a dozen projects in multiple countries over 18 months, coupled with historical evidence that it takes 17 years for evidence-based solutions to be adopted as standard practice, GANDHI team members have asked: What makes an innovation stick? Why does it take so long to scale up interventions?

Bass Connections Team Leader - Help Desk: Scaling Volunteer Models that Address Patients' Social Needs · 2020 - 2021 Projects & Field Work Global Health
Bass Connections Team Leader - Help Desk: A Student Initiative to Help Address the Social Determinants of Health · 2019 - 2020 Projects & Field Work flag North Carolina Global Health
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Developing a Mobile Phone-based Community Health Program for Hypertension Control in Nepal · 2018 - 2019 Projects & Field Work flag Nepal

Primary Theme: Global Health

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths and disability in many low-and middle-income countries, including Nepal. Prevention of cardiovascular diseases demands innovative solutions through multidisciplinary and multifaceted approaches. Nepal’s female community health volunteer program has been in place for three decades. Duke researchers have conducted a trial to successfully extend the roles of these volunteers from primarily maternal and child health interventions to include hypertension, a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. With a nearly 100% mobile phone ownership rate in the country, Nepal’s Ministry of Health has prioritized mobile health (mHealth) interventions. Medic Mobile has received support to scale up its feature-phone-based (non-smartphone) program to thousands of female community health volunteers to address prenatal care and maternal health. This Bass Connections project will collaborate with these partners to develop design insights and feature-phone-based programs, which will create a foundation for interventions with the potential to make a significant impact on hypertension prevention and control.

Bass Connections Faculty Team Leader - Data+ Project Lead · 2018 Projects & Field Work

Primary Theme: Information, Society & Culture

Bass Connections Faculty Team Leader - Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation · 2018 - 2019 Projects & Field Work

Primary Theme: Global Health

Although 15% of the world’s population has some form of disability, the system of public health and health services is not adequately organized to promote independence. Even the most developed and well-resourced nations have medically underserved regions and communities where the presence of disability is compounded by inequities in social determinants of health. In 2016, the Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation (GANDHI) launched to engage students, faculty, the Duke community and external partners to examine the system supporting transitions in health and healthcare for people who experience an acute illness or injury and are newly living with disability. With almost a dozen projects in multiple countries over 18 months, coupled with historical evidence that it takes 17 years for evidence-based solutions to be adopted as standard practice, GANDHI team members have asked: What makes an innovation stick? Why does it take so long to scale up interventions?

Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation (GANDHI) · August 2017 - May 2018 Projects & Field Work flag Uganda
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation (GANDHI) · August 2016 - May 2017 Projects & Field Work flag Netherlands
Duke Global Health Outreach - Capacity building and improved quality of the care developed to adults who have survived a stroke and are discharged from the hospital (China) · March 2014 Clinical Work China National Center for Neurological Diseases Research flag China

Service to Duke


Bass Connections Theme Leader (Health Innovation & Policy) · 2021 - 2022 Curriculum Innovations
Bass Connections Faculty Advisory Council (Program) · 2020 - 2022 Committee Service