The parent project is centered in developing a laboratory test-comparable mHealth technology of noninvasively assessing blood hemoglobin levels for anemia detection. To complete a smartphone-based noninvasive spectrometerless hemoglobin analyzer, we take advantage of virtual hyperspectral imaging to have similar results compared with laboratory-based hemoglobin tests (i.e. the gold standard). As the parent project is at the intersection of medical device, clinical laboratory testing, and healthcare, it focuses on advanced mHealth technologies under the broad-based discipline of health informatics, which deals with resources, devices and methods required to optimize acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information in health and biomedicine. In this supplement grant, we further propose the Africa mHealth Research Institute (AMHRI) to extend the proposed capacity building component to form a self-sustaining mHealth research community within sub- Saharan Africa. A few mHealth training programs, including the annual mHealth Summer Training Institute, have served a critical role in advancing mHealth research capacity, but have primarily served US-based researchers. We realize that there is a strong need for such trainings to be conducted within low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) to reach out to the target group of investigators and to sustainably strengthen the research capacity within LMICs. Through the AMHRI, we anticipate to lay the groundwork through which: (i) scholars within LMICs will be able to lead future mHealth research trainings, (ii) a strong regional mHealth research network will emerge, (iii) individuals from LMICs will be empowered to take leading roles in submission and implementation of competitive mHealth grants, and (iii) LMIC researchers can assume leadership in setting regional mHealth research priorities.
Gaps in mHealth research capacity have limited low- and middle-income country (LMIC) researchers from taking advantage of multiple mHealth funding opportunities and leading mHealth research agenda relevant to their countries. The Africa mHealth Research Institute will be a weeklong training institute held in an LMIC whose aim is to build needed mHealth research capacity and to establish sustainable mHealth research and mentorship networks within LMICs.
| Kim, Taehoon; Visbal-Onufrak, Michelle A; Konger, Raymond L et al. (2017) Data-driven imaging of tissue inflammation using RGB-based hyperspectral reconstruction toward personal monitoring of dermatologic health. Biomed Opt Express 8:5282-5296 |
