Qing “Charles” Cao and Qiang He are part of a new collaborative grant program led by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine-Knoxville (UTHSC COM-K) to support research and scholarly activities addressing health issues across Tennessee and beyond.
The program will fund six awards totaling more than $450,000 to support teams of clinicians, faculty, and researchers from across the state to innovate in the field of medicine and biomedical research.
The research grants will support a range of projects, from developing new approaches to health disparities in rural communities to understanding how information shared between clinicians and patients can be used to create personalized approaches for improving health and wellness. By working together, the teams will be well positioned to make significant strides in improving how translational research, new technologies, and health information converge to create improved outcomes for patients across Tennessee and beyond.
Cao, an associate professor in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and He, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will work alongside researchers from UT, UTHSC COM-K and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Office of Research on separate projects.
Cao’s team will use machine learning-based processes to improve disease management through personalized evidence-based recommendations, reducing disparities in treatment and outcomes. He will be working with Angela Pfammatter, senior methodologist in UT’s College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences and an associate professor in the Department of Public Health; Matthew Mihelic, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UTHSC COM-K; Agricola Odoi, assistant dean for research and graduate studies and a professor of epidemiology in UT’s College of Veterinary Medicine; Nabil Alshurafa, an associate professor of preventive medicine and computer science at Northwestern University; Jennifer Lord, an assistant professor of veterinary public health and epidemiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine; Bob Davis, professor and director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Pediatrics at UTHSC COM-Memphis; and Wenjun Zhou, a professor in the Department of Business Analytics and Statistics at UT.
He and Rajiv Dhand, a professor in the Department of Medicine at UTHSC COM-K, will examine the association between the incidence of ventilator-assisted pneumonia and the complex microbiome associated with environmental endotracheal tube contamination.
“We are excited to see the transdisciplinary innovations that will emerge from these collaborations,” said Brad Day, associate vice chancellor for research at UT. “The diversity of expertise represented on these teams, coupled with the breadth of health challenges across the state, means our combined efforts will not only advance scientific knowledge but also translate into tangible benefits for patients.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, rpotkey@utk.edu)