New Delhi, Feb 22 (KNN)  India and US will be collaborating in research to identify new approaches to measurement of blood pressure which are both affordable and suitable for low resource settings in both the countries. 
 
“The purpose of this Indo-US Grand Challenge Initiative between Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), NIH, USA is to encourage research collaborations within and between both countries on the development of new blood pressure measurement technologies for either passive or acive monitoring of hypertension,” said an IUSSTF (Indo-US Science and Technology Forum) notice.
 
The technology should be able to automatically provide frequent data recording and reporting to healthcare workers as well as feed back to the patients.
 
Needless to say, Hypertension diagnosis and management is a critical healthcare issue. However, the basic underlying approach for the measurement of Blood Pressure has essentially remained the same for the past several decades. This calls for a technological innovation.

SERB and NIBIB have launched two separate and parallel, funding opportunity announcements in India and USA respectively to promote research in this area and generate alternate scientific approaches and technological options.

It is expected that this partnership between the two countries will leverage knowledge and material resources to develop new technologies which are relevant for low resource settings not only in their respective political domain but other similar settings all over the world.

In this context, IUSSTF has called for proposals from Indian researchers in academic / research institutions built around new approaches for the measurement of Blood Pressure and resulting in technologies which are simple at the front user end, low cost, reliable, robust and do not need any clinical expertise at the user end.
 
Such technologies may either be focused on minimum interaction devices for personal usage in home environment or high through put systems for quick measurement and recording of a large population.
 
Primary focus of the work should be “accurate measurement” and “simplicity and ruggedness” of the device, doing away the need of cuffs and clinical expertise to carry out the measurement. 
 
All Indians having adequate research background and formal affiliation to academic institutions, research laboratories and non-profit R&D institutions are eligible to submit proposals, as lead investigators.  (KNN/ES)