Funding, Grants & Awards | News

Carnegie Mellon U, Rwanda Granted Funds for Healthcare Information Technology Research

• By Kevin Hudson
• 02/13/13

Carnegie Mellon University, Rwanda (CMUR) has been awarded a grant to advance research on information and communication technology for healthcare in developing countries.

The unrestricted grant is funded by Ricoh, a provider of digital office solutions, and will be used to support the research of CMUR assistant professor Hedda Schmidtke and scholar-in-residence Suzana Brown in the area of information and communications technology for healthcare. Ricoh indicated in a company release its hopes that the research will result in development of new technologies and new business opportunities.

CMUR is a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and the government of Rwanda to build information and communication technology capacity in Rwanda and throughout East Africa through graduate education and research.

The university has identified information and communication technology for healthcare as a principal research thrust because of the effect that advances in this sector can have in developing countries, due to the growing demands on limited, expensive medical resources.

The grant "makes it possible for our faculty and students to launch new research into ICT innovations that will significantly improve healthcare in developing countries like Rwanda, particularly through the use of mobile technology,” said director of CMUR Bruce Krogh in a Ricoh release.

CMUR is the first American research institution to offer engineering graduate degrees in Africa and plays a significant role in the government of Rwanda's vision to create a regional Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Center of Excellence in Kigali and establish ICT as a major component of a knowledge-based economy. Carnegie Mellon University has its main American campus in Pittsburgh, PA, and serves more than 11,000 students at seven campuses.