Brooks College faculty improving health of Cypress Village elderly residents
University of North Florida health administration faculty were recently recognized for efforts to improve the health of the elderly residents at Cypress Village Retirement community with early detection methods that proved successful in preventing hospitalizations. Dr. Mei Zhao, professor and chair, and Dr. Shyam Paryani, instructor and Executive Master of Health Administration (EHMA) program director, accepted the award at the ConnectUS 2023 Annual Celebration.
Introduced to the Cypress Village community by former EMHA student Sara Ninya, current VP of operations at the Village, the UNF team created a virtual care center for residents at a local retirement community last summer by utilizing remote patient monitoring. The ongoing project involves the use of various sensors to detect abnormalities in a person’s health. If anything is detected, the individual receives a call on their phone from an app equipped with telemedicine to communicate with a doctor’s office.
Drs. Zhao and Paryani’s UNF team consisted of fellow UNF Brooks College of Health faculty Dr. Hanadi Hamadi, health administration, Dr. Lindsay Toth, clinical & applied movement sciences, and Dr. Brittany Nettles, nursing.
Also involved in the project was UNF graduate student and basketball player Dorian James, who will help expand research to monitor student-athletes to help determine how their fitness and activity levels relate to performance, injury recovery and overall wellness.