FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact: Kristin Sullivan, (817) 272-5364, kristinsul@uta.edu

ARLINGTON - The Medical Technologies Consortium today announces seven grants awarded to Dallas-Fort Worth area researchers for development of medical technologies in critical health care areas. The seven awards total $750,000.

The consortium was founded in September 2009 as a collaborative research partnership between The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Instruments and Texas Health Research & Education Institute, the research and medical education arm of Texas Health Resources. 

Areas to be researched include cardiovascular, oncology (breast and prostate cancer), falls reduction, pressure ulcer prevention, obstructive sleep apnea and children's cerebral palsy. Working with the consortium's academic, industry and health care partners, the researchers will develop pilot programs aimed at attracting sustained, follow-on funding from external sources, such as federal, state or private agencies. Each of the projects has a physician, generally affiliated with Texas Health hospitals, working closely with the research investigator to guide relevance to health care needs.

Research investigators for the grants are faculty members at UT Arlington and UT Dallas, with co-investigators coming from the universities and Texas Health. Clinical work will generally take place at Texas Health hospitals and their facilities, including the Texas Health Minimally Invasive Technology Center on the campus of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

"We look forward to working with these talented teams on innovative projects that will advance health care quality and patient safety," said Michael J. Deegan, M.D., E.D.M., executive vice president and chief clinical and quality officer for Texas Health Resources. "These pilot programs have the potential to improve health not just for North Texans, but around the world."

Texas Instruments executives emphasized the collaborative nature of the research program between engineering universities and medical centers.

"The Medical Technologies Consortium and these initial projects show great promise for creating useful implementations of bio-medical electronics for improved medical care," said Allen Bowling, Manager of Research and Consortia, TI Analog Technology Development.

The winning proposals are:

"Nanoporous Membrane Based Blood Oxygenator and Monitoring Device"

Cardiovascular

Brian Dennis, Ph.D., UT Arlington (lead principal investigator)

Zeynep Çelik-Butler, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Digant Davé, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Richard Billo, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Dinesh Bhatia, Ph.D., UT Dallas

Gary Weinstein, M.D., medical staff of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas

Teresa Turbeville, Texas Health Research & Education Institute

David Fosdick, M.D., medical staff of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas

Thomas Russell, M.D., medical staff of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas

"WAIMS: Wireless Automated Inpatient Monitoring Systems"

Falls Reduction and Patient Safety

Roozbeh Jafari, Ph.D., UT Dallas (lead principal investigator)

Christopher Ray, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Michael Motes, Ph.D., UT Dallas

David Keller, Ph.D., UT Arlington

John Hart, M.D., UT Dallas

"Smart Bed Design for Pressure Ulcer Prevention"

Pressure Ulcer Prevention

Mehrdad Nourani, Ph.D., UT Dallas (lead principal investigator)

Alan Bowling, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Susann Land, M.D., chief quality officer, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford

Deborah Behan, Ph.D. (c), nurse researcher, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford

"Haptic Guidance for Breast Biopsy System"

Oncology

Venkat Devarajan, Ph.D., UT Arlington (lead principal investigator)

B. Prabhakaran, Ph.D., UT Dallas 

Katherine Hall, M.D., medical staff of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas

"Microfluidic Assays Embedded with Silicon Nanowire Sensors for Assessment and Prognosis of Prostate Cancer Metastasis"

Oncology

Jung-Chih Chiao, Ph.D., UT Arlington (lead principal investigator)

Walter Hu, Ph.D., UT Dallas

Sanjay Awasthi, M.D., medical staff of Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital

Jinming Gao, Ph.D., UT Dallas

"Wireless Home-based Sleep Apnea Detection and Sleep Quality Monitoring"

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Hlaing Minn, Ph.D., UT Dallas (lead principal investigator)

Lakshman Tamil, Ph.D., UT Dallas

Larry Ammann, Ph.D., UT Dallas

William Brock, M.D., chief quality officer, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano

Ishfaq Ahmad, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Vassilis Athitsos, Ph.D., UT Arlington

"A Breakthrough Probe Technology for Translating Near-Infrared Brain Imaging into a Routine Clinical Tool for Assessing Motor Deficits in Children with Cerebral Palsy"

Women, Infants and Children

Georgios Alexandrakis, Ph.D., UT Arlington (lead principal investigator)

Duncan MacFarlane, Ph.D., UT Dallas

Mauricio Delgado-Ayala, M.D., Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children

Fillia Makedon, Ph.D., UT Arlington

Hanli Liu, Ph.D., UT Arlington

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