Consortium links experts in engineering, medicine to improve health in underserved communities

One of the enduring problems in America ’s health care landscape is managing chronic disease among people who live in low-income communities. Because access to health care services is so often a challenge, many who have serious illnesses and live in these neighborhoods aren’t diagnosed until their health worsens — and when the cost of treating their diseases are higher.To address that need, experts from UCLA, Texas A&M University, Rice University and Florida International University are joining forces to develop technologies to help people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, two of the leading causes of death in low-income communities.With funding from the National Science Foundation, the universities have formed the Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations engineering research center, or PATHS-UP. The consortium aims to create health monitoring devices to prevent, delay and better manage diabetes and heart disease.“UCLA Engineering is proud of the PATHS-UP team and committed to developing accessible and affordable health management tools for people who are at risk,” said Jayathi Murthy, dean of theUCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. “With our wealth of expertise in mobile health and diagnostics, UCLA’s schools of engineering and medicine have the resources and talent to make a lasting difference in our surrounding communities.”The UCLA effort is being led by Aydogan Ozcan, Chancellor ’s...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news