Category: Awards

THRIVE: Timely Health Indicators using Remote Sensing & Innovation for the Vitality of the Environment

Blog post in the Modern Network

Earth observations have been used for decades to benefit society. The Veterans Administration (VA) is the country’s largest health care provider, caring for seven million veterans. The project is aimed at enhancing the VA decision support tools in the area of public health and air quality utilizing multiple NASA Satellite and Earth Science Model Products. This environmental information will be integrated with the VA’s Decision Support Systems.

The project is based on a close collaboration with the VA to provide a three-fold enhancement of the existing VA decision support, namely:

1. Personalized Health Alerts for Patients in the existing MyHealtheVet tool.
2. New Tool for Logistical Planning for Emergency Rooms and Clinics.
3. Improved Diagnosis Tools for Physicians.

We learn from the past to inform the future by using machine learning to determine the mapping from historical VA hospital admissions (all ICD codes) and prescriptions over the last decade to the environmental data provided by a suite of NASA products. The key goal is the sustained routine use of the NASA products beyond the end of this project.

The proposition being developed and tested is that global daily high resolution air quality data delivered as a web service is of tremendous measurable value for multiple application verticals in a suite of decision support tools. The daily data products derived from a suite of NASA datasets using machine learning will allow provision of proactive health care by the country’s largest health care provider, the VA, and proactive policy making and environmental reporting for the municipality of San Leandro, CA.

We will utilize the UTD Innovative Virtual Platform for Research Collaboration and Application (a state of the art telepresence facility) to have regular videoconferences with our partners across the country.

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