UMass Chan, Lowell receive $9M from NIH for home health technology

A building with a sign that reads "UMass Chan Medical School" behind two trees

PHOTO | Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester

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By Isabel Tehan

UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Lowell have received $8.9 million from the National Institutes of Health in support for their development of home care technology.

The Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies in Heart, Lung, Blood and Sleep Disorders, started by Worcester’s UMass Chan and UMass Lowell as part of an incubator project, is the award recipient. Seven centers researching home care and point-of-care technologies are receiving the grant.

“There’s increased attention about health care for all and accessibility for all,” Nathaniel Hafer, co-principal investigator on the project, said in a Thursday announcement from UMass Chan. “We want to push the envelope with thinking about new ways of delivering health care and new ways of making sure everybody can benefit from these technologies.”

The NIH award is a renewal of a 2018 funding round for the project, which led to the launch of 23 concept-to-funding innovations.

“There’s what’s considered a Valley of Death in the development of technologies between the time when someone comes up with a really good idea and starting a company, but they need resources to evaluate the technology and develop it. Few companies actually make it,” Dr. David McManus, UMass Chan’s co-investigator on the project, said in the press release. “CAPCaT’s goal is to identify that earlier-stage company, which is high risk but potentially high reward, bring in regulatory expertise and commercialization experts, and brainstorm with the team about other applications of the technology.”