UA Engineering Receives Grant to Enhance Wireless Telemedicine

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Yang Xiao, assistant professor of computer science at The University of Alabama, and Dr. Fei Hu, of Rochester Institute of Technology, were recently awarded a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Cyber Trust Program to research advancements in wireless telemedicine.

This technology allows the sharing of medical knowledge over a distance using telecommunication.

Xiao will collaborate with Hu, an assistant professor of computer engineering at RIT, to advance the integration of radio frequency identification technology, also known as RFID, into cardiac system networks. These networks remotely monitor and transfer a patient’s heartbeat and blood pressure to doctors off-site to improve medical care awareness and availability.

The team hopes that the study will lead to a significant increase in the quality of medical care, a decrease in health care costs for patients, and a substantial improvement in medical diagnosis.

“The integration of RFID into existing cardiac systems can monitor the medicine taking behavior of the patients, preventing them from taking too much or the wrong kind of medicine” said Xiao. “In addition, the integration can monitor the location of patients who are experiencing medical emergencies, like strokes or heart attacks.”

In 1837, The University of Alabama became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes. Today, UA’s fully accredited College of Engineering has about 1,900 students and nearly 100 faculty. In the last seven years, students in the College have been named USA Today All-USA College Academic Team members, Goldwater scholars, Hollings scholars and Portz scholars.