The Center for Health + Technology (CHeT), a flagship program within the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, strives to propel neurological research forward, ultimately improving health outcomes. This center, led by Ray Dorsey, MD, MBA, and Erika Augustine, MD, MS, envisions a future where novel approaches modernize clinical research, enabling widespread participation and ensuring that individuals everywhere can benefit from therapeutic advances and high-quality care.
Neurological conditions represent a significant global health challenge, being the leading cause of disability worldwide. The incidence of these conditions continues to climb. Despite considerable progress in understanding the underlying mechanisms of neurological diseases and in identifying new therapeutic targets—especially in areas like neurodevelopmental disorders and rare neurological diseases—significant hurdles remain. These include the rising costs of development and the need for extensive, costly trials with high failure rates. The gap between preclinical discoveries and effective clinical application needs bridging through advancements in clinical trial science.
To address these challenges, CHeT is actively developing and implementing innovative research methods. These strategies include leveraging technologies such as smartphones and sensors to enable remote participation in research and to objectively measure disease progression. Furthermore, they utilize disease modeling and simulation to improve efficiency and accuracy.
CHeT has established itself as a vital resource for fostering innovation in clinical research methodologies. Their work focuses on advancing the clinical neuroscience field and accelerating therapeutic development.
Over the past quarter-century, CHeT has been a pioneer in its field. They have spearheaded multi-center research studies involving 40,000 participants across 120 individual studies, which have led to the approval of seven therapies by the FDA. CHeT’s more recent efforts have greatly impacted research and care for Parkinson’s Disease (PD). These initiatives include the development of disease models that have identified novel clinical and genetic markers of disease progression, the first two virtual PD research studies, the two largest smartphone studies in PD, the first longitudinal wearable sensor study for PD, and the only national randomized controlled trial of telemedicine for PD. CHeT is currently leading the development of new capabilities for the next generation of clinical trials and employs over 80 full-time staff.
Collaboration is critical to CHeT’s mission. They have cultivated multidisciplinary partnerships spanning the University of Rochester, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, advocacy groups, and research organizations. This collaborative model provides CHeT with a unique position to expand its innovation in clinical research to other areas, including rare neurological conditions, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and disorders associated with aging.
