Transforming Health Care
We enhance digital health and promote healthy aging to increase access and improve outcomes.
A scalable model for increasing telehealth access
ACTIVATE, or Accountability, Coordination, and Telehealth In the Valley to Achieve Transformation and Equity, aims to reduce health disparities for rural, low-income communities.
Currently implemented at four community health centers, the program offers telehealth technology, health education and digital literacy training.
In early 2024, CITRIS’s Kathy Kim, a UC Davis Health adjunct professor, founded Health Tequity to bring ACTIVATE to market. The startup placed third in a July health innovation challenge.
Bridging the technology gap for older adults
Lighthouse for Older Adults, a collaboration between CITRIS Health and affordable senior housing providers, offers broadband access and digital literacy training to help residents connect to telehealth — and their loved ones.
Implemented in nine languages across 670 housing units in California, Lighthouse has increased community engagement and quality of life for older adults.
Symposium celebrates human-centered health tech
In March, the sold-out Advancing Health Tech for All symposium gathered students, educators and enthusiasts to investigate how the sector can further its efforts to develop just and effective solutions.
The year’s EDGE in Tech Athena Award recipients were honored throughout the day for their work to foster equity and inclusion.
The event served as the culmination of the first CITRIS Innovation Intensive on health, a weeklong deep dive that featured tours of all CITRIS campuses, including UC Davis Health.
“Everything about CITRIS and its mission resonates with me. The idea of information technology in the interest of society is critical. By solving challenging problems, we can make the world a better place for all.”
— Katia Obraczka, professor of computer science and engineering, CITRIS at UC Santa Cruz campus director, and co-founder of PIMAP (CITRIS Foundry Spring 2024)
RESEARCHER PROFILE
A titan of assistive technology
Motivated by the accidents she witnessed as an engineer in the oil fields, UC Santa Cruz professor Sri Kurniawan designs low-cost, robust and reliable assistive systems.
With CITRIS support, she has pursued several projects that prioritize vulnerable populations, from a speech therapy app for stroke patients to a training simulation for midwifery students and more.
She also advises Immergo Labs, a CITRIS Foundry venture founded by UC alumni that is developing the first platform for remote physical therapy.
From ‘superuser’ to startup founder
Ngoc Mai Nguyen, co-founder and CEO of OptoCeutics, made the leap from doctoral student to entrepreneur while learning to prototype as a “superuser” in the CITRIS Invention Lab maker space.
Inspired by a paper on the benefits of flickering light for Alzheimer’s patients, she collaborated with Danish researchers on a device that induces a brain-stimulating signal that enhances and preserves cognitive function.