The Center for Advancing Point of Care in Heart, Lung, Blood and Sleep Diseases

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Project Summary/Abstract – Overall Core American healthcare is rapidly evolving to a state where efficiency, quality and patient satisfaction are dominant drivers. Several trends are driving fundamental changes in health care: 1) an expanding scope of virtual care and telemedicine, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has changed how patients, healthcare providers, and health systems interact; 2) a growing recognition of disparities leading to an emphasis in providing healthcare equitably for historically marginalized populations; 3) an increasing appreciation for the patient as a critical stakeholder in therapeutic decision-making, leading to an emphasis on patient-centered design; and 4) increasing access to home health to enable better diagnosis, prevention and management of health conditions, as illustrated by widespread adoption of home-testing for SARS-CoV-2. Despite this rapidly changing environment, heart (cardiovascular), lung, blood, and sleep disorders (HLBS) continue to cause significant morbidity, mortality, and cost in the US and worldwide. Combined, these diseases account for 41% of deaths in the US and lead to over $400B in direct health care expenses plus lost income to affected patients and caregivers. Thus, there are urgent unmet needs in HLBS. We will address these issues with the renewal of the Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT) in HLBS Disorders. CAPCaT is a highly successful Point-of-Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN) Center that leverages our experience running a medical product incubator, the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell and Worcester campuses), and our experience administering grants, running, and managing solicitations, and working 1:1 with awardees to advance their technologies toward commercialization. CAPCaT expanded upon the original vision and success of M2D2 and now has its own established track record and collaborative network to develop and optimize novel POC and home-based technologies to improve the diagnosis and management of HLBS disorders. Our objectives in achieving this goal are to continue: 1) identifying, through stakeholder engagement, the most promising POC and home-based technologies to address unmet medical needs; 2) supporting developmental plans, including pathways to adoption at the point of care or in the home; and 3) training and disseminating developing POC and home-based technologies to the different stakeholders.