The Gary and Mary West Foundation granted the West Wireless Health Institute an additional $20 million to support biomedical engineering research. The foundation created the West Wireless Health Institute in March of last year after an initial grant of $45 million. West Wireless Health Institute CEO Don Casey is set to discuss the new funding in his keynote speech this morning at the Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance meeting here in La Jolla, CA.

WWHI describes itself as a medical research organization that is dedicated to cutting the cost of health care by innovating, validating, advocating for and investing in the use of wireless technologies to transform medicine. The nonprofit is headquartered in San Diego, California.

In addition to funding internal research and development, the grant will also support the Institute’s recently launched Postdoctoral Program, which is training the first generation of leaders in the emerging field of wireless health. The Institute’s Engineering department is led by Dr. Mehran Mehregany, its executive vice president of engineering and chief of engineering research:

“The vision of Gary and Mary West is unprecedented, and this vision will help propel solutions from the lab to market much faster than typically possible,” said Mehregany. “This grant allows us to continue to bring top talent in a broad spectrum of fields to the Institute, and gives a major boost to our development efforts.”

“Mary and I are proud to contribute to breakthrough research and development in the rapidly emerging wireless health industry,” Gary West stated in a release. “The Institute’s leadership team is in place, and our mission to lower health care costs has been clearly defined. It is now imperative to drive internal innovation that ensures lower cost solutions are entering the marketplace as quickly as possible.”

Mehregany’s team of experienced engineers and postdoctoral fellows are focused on three core areas: applied research, engineered solutions and advanced training. The interdisciplinary team includes researchers from medicine, science and technology with expertise in a variety of areas, including microsystems, bioengineering, analytics, biomedical circuitry, nanotechnology, user experience and software, and wireless communications.

Just last month West Family Holdings, another group head by Gary and Mary West, led a round of funding for Sotera Wireless, formerly Triage Wireless, which is currently developing wireless vital sign monitoring technology, called ViSi Mobile, “comfortable body-worn sensors that allow for freedom of movement and multiple vital-sign capture, the technology also enables continuous accurate blood pressure measurement for ambulatory patients without the need for frequent cuff inflation.”

For more on the new funding for WWHI, read the press release here
For more on the Sotera Wireless funding, read that press release here