Ghosh receives funding to support heart disease prediction app
Uttam Ghosh, Ph.D., associate professor of cybersecurity, has received a grant to develop an app that will help predict heart disease. The funding is through a 2023 – 2024 Faculty Research Initiative grant from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Novartis US Foundation.
The name of Dr. Ghosh’s proposal is Fore❤️Care — A Smart Application for Multi-parametric Risk Modeling for Heart Disease Prediction. The app will use a multi-factor, risk prediction framework in an edge-cloud paradigm to predict threats to heart health.
“We aim for the Fore❤️Care app to predict health risks by taking inputs of blood pressure levels, heart rate and calorie consumption. The caloric count will be based on an artificial intelligence mapping from an image of a meal,” says Dr. Ghosh.
In addition to research, the project will include interactive presentations to share insights gained through use of the app to promote heart health awareness.
The Fore❤️Care app has potential to greatly impact the African American community, where heart disease is a significant concern.
A National Institutes of Health-supported study found that Black adults disproportionally receive heart failure therapies and cites that they are also at a greater risk for heart failure and are twice as likely to die from it. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that African Americans are more likely to die at early ages due to high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, stroke and other diseases.
“Unfortunately, young African Americans are living with diseases that are typically more common at older ages for other races,” says Dr. Ghosh. “It is our hope that with the Fore❤️Care app, and through sharing knowledge gained from its use, that we can help them live longer, healthier lives.”
Dr. Ghosh will lead the overall objectives and is co-principal investigator along with Dr. Nadine Shillingford, associate professor, computer science and data science. Two graduate students will help design and develop the application and its deep learning methods as well as help document the research findings.
David Lockett, grants proposal development and awards management specialist, will provide grant and project management support. Dr. Pushpita Chatterjee, from Howard University, will create heart health awareness presentations and review manuscripts.
