Writer: Kathleen Phillips, 979-845-2872, ka-phillips@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Kerrie Demarco, 979-845-4524, kdemarco@tamu.edu
COLLEGE STATION –The Center for Global Health and Innovation will mark its grand opening during the 2017 Texas A&M AgriLife conference at 10 a.m. Jan. 10 in the Rudder Tower on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station.
The center, with headquarters on the fifth floor of the Agriculture and Life Sciences Building, has begun collaborating on several projects, according to the director, Dr. Kerrie DeMarco.
DeMarco was named the center director in November. She was previously at the Texas A&M Health Science Center as the executive director for public health preparedness and response and the program manager for the Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing.
DeMarco said the center was created in collaboration with Philips and the Texas A&M University System to develop technologies such as: population health solutions as part of the Healthy South Texas program and Healthy Aging efforts; integrated emergency medical services technologies for more efficient and effective coordination of response efforts; and rapid point-of-care diagnostics and biosurveillance to help avoid epidemics and pandemics.
Other areas of interest currently being explored involve next generation medical devices and MRI capabilities, healthcare informatics, advanced wearable physiological monitors and advancing healthcare in developing countries.
“Our center has been constructed to provide an innovative, open environment for public-private collaborations to quickly design, develop, prototype and showcase healthcare solutions,” Demarco noted.
“At Philips, we are committed to building a healthy society and that requires public-private partnerships with forward-thinking organizations that can help us to reimagine healthcare, extending it beyond hospitals and into the communities we serve,” said Joe Robinson, senior vice president of Health System Solutions at Philips.
“Our work with the Texas A&M University System will allow us to develop connected health innovations, including telehealth and aging well services that allow people to stay at home, yet remain connected to their healthcare providers. Working together, we can design solutions that empower people to be more actively engaged in their health and help increase the quality of care, while at the same time lowering costs and setting the standard for population health management.”
-30-
