NIH awards UC $9 million grant to improve patient point-of-care te...( A leading cause of disability in the...)

A leading cause of disability in the United States is a neurological event such as stroke, head injury or drug abuse. Regardless of the cause, the brain is often quickly and irreversibly damaged. UC researchers, funded by a $9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, will study point-of-care technologies to assist the diagnosis and treatment of patients with neurologic emergencies. The result is the "Point-of-Care Center for Emerging Neuro Technologies. This five-year award is renewable for five years.

It is estimated that one million brain cells die every minute during an ischemic stroke, says Fred Beyette, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and principal investigator (PI) for the project. Its said that time is brain during a neurologic emergency. Point-of-care information is critical for preventing patient brain damage, dysfunction and death. Thus, there is a critical need for developing improved and rapid diagnostic information for the patient experiencing neurologic emergencies.

The UC center is dedicated to the development of technologies that will dramatically improve the care and health of the neurologic patient by providing fast and reliable information about the biological events occurring in this patient population, says Joseph Clark, professor of neurology in UCs College of Medicine and co-principal investigator (Co-PI) of the overall grant.

From Invention to Intervention

The focus of the Point-of-Care Center will be to nurture the development of technologies to improve the diagnosis of and response to neurodiseases and neurodisorders using point-of-care devices, whether at the bedside or in the operating room wherever diagnosis or treatment is needed, says Beyette. The NIH grant is intended to stimulate business in the community as well. The center will be structured to take ideas from conception to development of a prototype ready for clinical testing. Some of the fa
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