Led by CITRIS medical director Jay Han, an interdisciplinary group has received a new UC Davis Research Investments in the Sciences and Engineering (RISE) award based on health care research that has grown out of CITRIS work. The Initiative for Wireless Health and Wellness (iWHW) at UC Davis won a 3-year grant for $860,000 to investigate the use of wireless technologies, mobile sensors, and telemedicine to impact people’s health directly through mobile health (mHealth). Participants will use smartphones that gather data on how they move, how much they exercise, and how many calories they expend during the course of their daily life. The data will then be uploaded to be analyzed and reviewed by medical professionals (physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals) to provide personalized care.
In addition, the collaborative research project will examine privacy and security issues; how to best analyze huge streams of data; and the integration of that data into a patient’s electronic health record.
“As the medical director for CITRIS, I will be able to leverage cooperation and foster collaboration through the research project,” said Han. “Having this new grant allows us to go after additional grants and funding in order to establish UC as a leader in wireless and mobile health.”
The iWHW at UC Davis brings together an interdisciplinary team leveraging UC Davis’ unique combination of excellence in: telemedicine, computer science, engineering, nursing, clinical translational research, and disability research. In addition, the project brings together Prof. Edmund Seto of UC Berkeley, who is also the CITRIS Associate Faculty Healthcare Director, as part of the research group bringing his expertise in using mobile phones, sensors, and monitoring for public health.
The UC Davis RISE grants were awarded through the Office of Research. In total, $10 million will be awarded to twelve highly innovative interdisciplinary RISE themes over a three-year period.