SAN DIEGO - The West Wireless Health Institute one of the world's first medical research organizations dedicatd to advancing health and well-being through the use of wireless technologies has received at $45M contribution from the Gary and Mary West Foundation.
The foundation is a non-profit, grant making organization based in Carlsbad, CA. Its founder and chariman Gary West will serve on the West Wireless Health Instituate board of directors.
West will be joined by Eric J. Topal, holder of the Gary and Mary West chair of Innovative Medicine and chief academic officer at Scripps Health, a nonprofit community-based healthcare delivery network in San Diego, and Donald Jones, vice president of Health and Life Sciences at Qualcomm, a San Diego based provider of digital wireless communications.
"We believe this emerging field will completely transform healthcare as we know it", said West. "The institute aims to be the catalyst to move ideas and concepts quickly into reality, bringing cost-effective wireless health solutions to doctors, patients, and their families.
" The rapid and remarkable progress in wireless sensors - continually tracking important parameters such as blood sugar, blood pressure, all vital signs, sleep state and even caloric intake and expenditure - has the potential to change medicine in a radical and unprecendented way, " said Topol. "Not only does this fit the optimal models of individualized and consumer-driven healthcare, but there is tremendous potential to upgrade quality of care, reduce the cost burden and shift away from reactive to preventive medicine.