Roveda and Melde Discuss New Wearable Technology Center

The University of Arizona, Caltech, Baylor School of Medicine, and the University of Southern California recently joined forces on a new initiative to develop wearable technology for health data. The joint initiative, the Center to Stream Health Care in Place (C2SHIP), will be led by ECE professor Janet Roveda. The wearable technology can gather a variety of health information to help physicians provide remote care. 

Roveda and fellow ECE professor and associate dean of faculty affairs and inclusion for the College of Engineering Kathleen Melde spoke with MyHealthyApple about the $3 million interdisciplinary center. 

"It’s been a long journey for us at the University of Arizona. We both worked with various aspects of sensor and wearables design. We have been working for more than a decade on various wearable sensors, smaller sensors and systems, and other aspects of sensor communications," Roveda said. "It soon evolved into other areas beyond focusing on the quality of sensor data, such as how to establish communication and effectively stream the data out."

Due to the pandemic, it has never been more important to facilitate remote care.

“We’ve seen that telehealth works and telehealth is effective," Melde said in an interview with KGUN9. "This is a perfect time to be able to transform these technologies to allow greater access to health care.”

The center is currently in phase one, which is expected to last five years. Roveda and Melde plan to add more teams and researchers to the center as time goes on. 

The devices involved with C2SHIP can be worn or even implanted. 

”You measure it at home, you read it yourself. That’s it. It has nothing to do with a doctor. Now with the research, you can basically bring the information right into the doctor’s office. So, the technology is here. The problem is how to connect every piece together,” Roveda said in an interview with KOLD. ”In general, it’s not going to be centered around the hospital anymore. We’re looking at a distributive care service or care facility model that is going to be outside of the hospital. It will provide a continuous monitoring care or service for people wherever they go.”