Rice faculty among 2023 PATHS-UP Seed Fund award winners

Rice-hosted Digital Health Workshop spurs research initiatives on digital technology solutions for cardiovascular, diabetes care

workshop photo

Spurred by the first Digital Health Workshop held at Rice University in August, 10 clinician-engineering teams have been selected as PATHS-UP Seed Fund award winners for projects that explore promising new directions for advancing digital health solutions with several Rice faculty members among awardees.

graphic
(Graphic by Julie Reynolds/TAMU)

The workshop aimed to catalyze advancements in digital health toward cardiovascular and diabetes research that addresses the needs of both adult and pediatric populations. Spearheaded by the National Science Foundation-funded Engineering Research Center Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations (PATHS-UP), this event brought together experts from various fields, including clinicians, engineers, industry leaders and representatives from government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

During the comprehensive workshop, leading clinicians shared insights into the latest developments in cardiovascular and diabetes care. Engineering faculty unveiled state-of-the-art digital health technologies to revolutionize patient monitoring, diagnosis and treatment.

The workshop received seed funding support from five agencies and centers to fund 10 projects dedicated to advancing digital health: Rice’s Educational and Research Initiatives for Collaborative Health (ENRICH), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and PATHS-UP.

The Seed Fund award winners from the 2023 PATHS-UP Digital Health Workshop are:

  • Dino Di Carlo, ULCA; and Dr. Maria Jose Redondo, Baylor College of Medicine:
    Transforming Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis: A Cost-Effective Multiplexed Point-of-Care Approach and Digital Health Integration
  • Dr. Khurram Nasir, Houston Methodist; and Guha Balakrishnan, Rice University:
    Investigating AI-Derived Neighborhood Exposomic Fingerprints as Drivers of Cardiovascular Disease
  • Sam Mabbott, Texas A&M University; and Dr. Maria Jose Redondo, Baylor College of Medicine: C-PepTech: Streamlined C-Peptide Diagnostics in the Digital Era
  • Dr. Jayer Chung, Baylor College of Medicine; Akane Sano, Rice University; and Dr. Nidal Moukaddam, Baylor College of Medicine: AI algorithms using digital markers to diagnose and monitor depression in critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI)
  • Limei Tian, Texas A&M University; and Jennette Moreno, Baylor College of Medicine: Development of a novel noninvasive wearable sensor to assess circadian rhythmicity in children and adults
  • Momona Yamagami, Rice University; Dr. Atiya Dhala, Houston Methodist; and Farzan Sasangohar, Texas A&M University: Enabling Access to Prehab for Kidney Transplant Candidates who are Frail
  • Amir Tofighi Zavareh, Texas A&M University; Bijan Najafi, Baylor College of Medicine; and Dr. Joseph Mills, Baylor College of Medicine: A non-invasive optical device to rapidly screen for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD)
  • Dr. Abhishek H. Kansara, Houston Methodist; Dr. Ashutosh Sabharwal, Rice University; Personalized Insulin-to-Carbohydrate Ratio for Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes
  • Erica Soltero, Baylor College of Medicine; and Farzan Sasangohar, Texas A&M University: Investigating the efficacy of mobile health monitoring and self-care to improve obesity outcomes in Hispanic adolescent populations
  • Soaram Kim, Texas A&M University; Myeounggon Lee, Baylor College of Medicine; and Bijan Najafi, Baylor College of Medicine: Advanced Real-time Gait Monitoring in Parkinson’s Diseases with IoT Wearable Sensors
Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/12/AI-Health_PATHS-UP-1.jpg (Photo by Donald Soward/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/12/AI-Health_PATHS-UP-2.jpg (Photo by Donald Soward/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/12/1701712775585.jpg (Graphic by Julie Reynolds/TAMU)

Links:

Rice University Educational and Research Initiatives for Collaborative Health: https://enrich.rice.edu/

George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu/

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: https://eceweb.rice.edu/

Ashutosh Sabharwal website: http://ashu.rice.edu/

Reconfigurable Eco-system for Next-generation End-to-end Wireless: https://renew-wireless.org/

See Below the Skin: http://www.seebelowtheskin.org/

Saving Lives Through Transformative Health Technologies: https://pathsup.org/

Scalable Health Labs: http://sh.rice.edu/

Full-duplex Wireless: https://fullduplex.rice.edu/

About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Body