Gary and Mary West Foundation Grants $20 Million to Advance Engineering Efforts Within the West Wireless Heath Institute

Institute's Research and Development will Accelerate Lower Cost Wireless Health Solutions Worldwide

SAN DIEGO, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Gary and Mary West Foundation today announced a grant of $20 million to support biomedical engineering research within the West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI).  WWHI, founded in March 2009 with an initial $45 million grant from the Gary and Mary West Foundation, is one of the world's first medical research organizations dedicated to cutting the cost of health care by innovating, validating, advocating for and investing in the use of wireless technologies to transform medicine.  The nonprofit Institute is headquartered in San Diego, California, the global hub for wireless life science research and development.

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"Mary and I are proud to contribute to breakthrough research and development in the rapidly emerging wireless health industry," said Mr. West.  "The Institute's leadership team is in place, and our mission to lower health care costs has been clearly defined.  It is now imperative to drive internal innovation that ensures lower cost solutions are entering the marketplace as quickly as possible."

"Once again Gary and Mary West have stepped forward with an extraordinary commitment to help deliver access to more affordable health care," said Don Casey, the Institute's CEO.  "Our objective is to redefine the health care experience so patients begin to receive the right care, at the right time, wherever they may be.  This grant will enable the Institute to create technologies that make infrastructure independent health care a reality."

The Institute's Engineering department is led by Dr. Mehran Mehregany, its executive vice president of engineering and chief of engineering research.  In addition to funding internal research and development, the grant will also support the Institute's recently launched Postdoctoral Program, which is training the first generation of leaders in the emerging field of wireless health.  

"The vision of Gary and Mary West is unprecedented, and this vision will help propel solutions from the lab to market much faster than typically possible," said Mehregany.  "This grant allows us to continue to bring top talent in a broad spectrum of fields to the Institute, and gives a major boost to our development efforts."

Mehregany's team of experienced engineers and postdoctoral fellows are focused on three core areas: applied research, engineered solutions and advanced training.  The interdisciplinary team includes researchers from medicine, science and technology with expertise in a variety of areas, including microsystems, bioengineering, analytics, biomedical circuitry, nanotechnology, user experience and software, and wireless communications.

For more information on WWHI, please visit www.westwirelesshealth.org.

ABOUT THE WEST WIRELESS HEALTH INSTITUTE

The West Wireless Health Institute (www.westwirelesshealth.org) is one of the first medical research organizations in the world supporting the exploration and application of wireless technologies to advance infrastructure independent health care.   Based in San Diego, California, the nonprofit Institute is fostering an unprecedented convergence of science, medicine, engineering and technology.  Its primary mission is to cut health care costs by accelerating the availability of wireless medical technology.

SOURCE West Wireless Health Institute