Two faculty in the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to employ telehealth technologies to combat diabetes in rural, underserved areas.

The grant, awarded to Mohanraj Thirumalai, Ph.D., assistant professor, and Tapan Mehta, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Health Services Administration, will be used to develop an automated conversational behavior monitoring and counseling program for diabetes-related health behaviors. 

The project, called GODART, or Gamified Optimized Diabetes management with Artificial Intelligence-powered Rural Telehealth, will use natural language-understanding technology combined with gamification to reach target communities in Alabama and other Deep South states with high rates of diabetes. This intervention uses several new techniques such as daily automated diabetes-related behavior monitoring, rewards for consistency in behavior monitoring and artificial intelligence-powered health coaching calls.

Read More at UAB Reporter.