Award Data

Project Summary/AbstractDFUs will affect more than 30% of diabetic patients within their lifetime and costs the US healthcare system over $20 billion annually. Many DFUs fail to heal effectively and require extensive medical intervention. Nearly 50% of DFUs worsen to “tunnel” into deep tissues involving tendons and bones (DTU-DFUs). When this happens, DFUs are susceptible to severe complicatio ...

1 Approximately 6.5 million Americans aged 65 and older live with dementia, supported by more than 11 million2 unpaid family caregivers. These numbers are projected to rise exponentially in the coming decades fueling the3 need to develop scalable ways to support dementia caregivers. The need to empower dementia caregivers to4 continue providing care while maintaining their own health and well-bein ...

Each day, more than 100,000 patients undergo general anesthesia in the United States. The current practice of general anesthesia is prone to over-sedating patients, either due to the lack of brain monitoring or using brain monitors with inaccurate indices. Over-sedation (at 28% incidence) contributes to perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PNDs) in elderly population (≥65yrs). The cost of PND ...

Project Summary/Abstract Retinal neovascularization (RNV) is a major cause of vision loss in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), diabetic retinopathy (DR) and retinal vein occlusion. In the US, about 16,000 of premature infants are affected by ROP annually and about 4.1 million adults years have DR. Complications of conventional treatments suggest an unmet need for new therapies. The long-term objec ...

Project Summary Pediatric myopia, also known as nearsightedness, is an eye condition in which one is unable to bring distant objects into proper focus. It is the leading cause of vision impairment in the world. The estimated economic impact of uncorrected refractive error is estimated to be a loss of $202 billion of global gross domestic product. The prevalence of myopia and high myopia are increa ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Substance use disorder (SUD) is a significant public health challenge, and it has been estimated that its effects on healthcare, work productivity, and criminal justice costs the US over $600 billion annually. Engagement with the clinical care team is critical to an individual’s path to SUD recovery; however, limited capacity of and access to addiction treatment providers and tra ...

PROJECT SUMMARY It has been shown that conversations on end-of-life care focused on a patient’s goals of care can reduce psychological distress and anxiety and lead to improved quality of life, and potentially prolonged life, for patients living with serious illness. The Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG) is a validated and widely used framework for training the critical communication ski ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in the United States, affecting one out of every nine older adults. However, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) can be difficult to diagnose, with physicians missing nearly half of all probable dementia cases. Rates of missed diagnosis are even higher among Black older adults. The majority of ph ...

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and fourth most common cause of death. Amyloid-beta (Aβ) plays a crucial role in initiation and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Removal of circulating Aβ would shift the equilibrium in Aβ levels between brain and blood towards blood. This shift would deplete brain amyloid levels and improve memory. Three commercial m ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Opioid and/or Stimulant Use Disorders (OUD/StUD) are chronic, recurring conditions that if left untreated, pose a significant and ongoing public health and safety threat, with costs associated with OUD alone in the US exceeding one trillion dollars annually. Virtual Reality Cue Exposure (VRCE) employs safe and controlled repeated exposure to a variety of substance use cues and envi ...