Recently, as many as 6 IE faculty were either principal investigators (PIs) or co-PIs on several seed grants awarded for the 2022-2023 cycle through Clemson University’s partnership with Prisma Health. Seed grants are mechanisms to fund pilot-level research which often forms the basis for successful larger proposals that are submitted to federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). The recent awards are in line with the department’s solid growth trajectory and expanding research expenditures driven by an increasing number of federally funded projects.
The projects awarded seed grants are outlined below:
Drs. Jackie Cha (Clemson University), Alfredo Carbonell (Prisma Health), Anjali Joseph (Clemson University), and Divya Srinivasan (Clemson University) were awarded a seed grant by the Prisma Health Sciences Center for “Investigating the Use of Exoskeletons for Reducing Musculoskeletal Injuries in Surgical Care Tasks”. The study will investigate the feasibility and acceptance of the use of passive exoskeletons to reduce musculoskeletal symptoms and injuries for surgeons, nurses, and other surgical team members.
Dr. Emily Tucker was awarded a seed grant entitled “How Low Can You Go? Personnel Shortages and Resilience in a System of Emergency Departments” by the Prisma Health Sciences Center. The work is in collaboration with Dr. Arwen Declan (co-PI) in the Prisma Health Emergency Department. Aisha Nelson, IE MS Thesis student, will be the lead graduate student researcher on the project. The research focuses on the interrelated effects of staffing strain on patient congestion in a network of emergency departments.
Dr. Hamed Rahimian was awarded an Innovation Maturation Fund, supported by the Clemson University Research Foundation and the Health Sciences Center at Prisma Health. The project is titled “Algorithms for Personalized Diabetes Management”. In collaboration with researchers from the Department of Medicine at Prisma Health, this grant supports the development and commercialization of health care innovations for diabetes management. Dr. Rahimian’s work focuses on the development of algorithms for personalized diabetes management. Congratulations Dr. Rahimian.
Drs. Sudeep Hegde (PI), Ronald Pirallo (co-PI, Prisma Health), and Kevin Taaffe (co-PI), were awarded the Prisma Health Science Center (HSC) Transformative Seed Grant for “Mixed-methods Study to Evaluate and Improve Emergency Department Handoffs Based on Stakeholder Experience”. Their research will focus on understanding frontline caregivers’ perspectives around a new Emergency Department (ED) handoff schedule at Greenville Memorial Hospital. The research will combine qualitative methods with quantitative (statistical) techniques to assess key process and outcome metrics, including physiological measures of staff workload, patient length of stay, and readmission rates. The research will ultimately identify adaptive patterns in the ED workflow that underpin performance as reflected in standard metrics of workload and ED outcomes.
