The Center for Health and Business stimulates and strengthens innovative and impactful projects in the Bentley health ecosystem by providing seed funds: championing these efforts internally and promoting them externally. The Bentley community is supported in their health-related research, as well as health-related grant and gift seeking endeavors. We support faculty, staff and students to directly engage with and impact the health industry, informing and learning from research, sharing science and best practices and helping to answer key questions that ultimately impact the delivery of healthcare and the health industry as a whole.
Health Initiative Seed Funds
Examples of Funded Projects
Revolutionizing Healthcare Cost Accounting Through AI
This project's goal is to develop AI algorithms that can accurately predict patient care costs, enhance resource allocation efficiency and analyze the financial impacts of various healthcare protocols, using large datasets from healthcare providers to train and test AI models. By integrating AI with healthcare financial management, the project aims to uncover innovative methods for cost prediction, resource optimization and economic evaluation of treatment approaches. This project positions Bentley as a leader in producing relevant, impactful research in healthcare finance and AI.
Representation Learning from Electronic Health Records Data
The wealth of valuable real-world medical data found within Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems is particularly significant in disease phenotyping and patient clustering. Our research proposes to model the counts of EHR concepts and the binary phenotype for a target disease. This will allow patients with similar profiles to be grouped together, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical research, leading to more personalized healthcare recommendations and improved management of diseases.
Digital Platform Usage, Digital Literacy and Familial Health Potential
Digital technologies have supported psychological, emotional, and physical well-being, including access to mental health professionals, services to support food insecurity, financial support services, and education. The understanding needed to use a touchscreen, navigate two-step authentication, and manage AI may be the greatest hurdle in full health potential. However, there is limited research on vulnerable populations' digital access and literacy skills and the relationship to health-based outcomes.
Student Opportunities
Health Impact Award
The Center for Health and Business seeks to amplify and acknowledge meaningful health-related activities and research at Bentley University. The Health Impact Award (HIA) was created to annually honor one faculty, one staff member and one student for their specific impactful contribution to the health ecosystem at Bentley and beyond through teaching, research or work in the community. The recipients of the award present their health-related work at an academic celebration to further disseminate the knowledge and acknowledge of the exceptional work related to health at Bentley. Each recipient receives a cash award for their contribution.
More details will be available in fall 2024.
Virtual Communications Research Lab
The Center for Health and Business' research collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and McGill University has evolved into an international collaboration to produce the VCR Lab. Housed at Bentley University, the VCR lab conducts research in the areas of telehealth, end-of-life palliative care, and clinical communications through virtual reality.