Leticia R. Moczygemba, Pharm.D., Ph.D., FAACP, FAPhA, professor in the Division of Health Outcomes and Lonnie F. Hollingsworth, Sr. Centennial Fellow, was one of seven researchers to earn a planning grant from the PhRMA Foundation.
Dr. Moczygemba's research involves testing and validating wearable sensors to improve health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness (PEH). PEH in particular face extremely challenging environments for sleep; this research involves the feasibility and potential for wearable sleep trackers. Sleep data collected from these wearable trackers could help measure implications of sleep as an indicator of mental health and overall functioning in PEH.
For the past 14 years, Dr. Moczygemba has worked with communities and health systems, including federally-qualified health centers, church-based organizations, pharmacies and community partners in Virginia, Texas and Florida to mitigate health inequities by developing and testing multi-level interventions to optimize health outcomes. Another study involving PEH health outcomes was funded by a five-year research grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The $25,000 planning grant from the PhRMA Foundation will allow Moczygemba to compete in 2024 to win one of two $500,000 research grants. The grants seek to develop comprehensive research proposals examining the use of digital health technologies (DHTs) in populations underrepresented in clinical trials.
The PhRMA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that fosters biopharmaceutical innovation and value-driven health care by investing in the frontiers of research. The Foundation catalyzes the careers of promising researchers through competitive, peer-reviewed grants and fellowships in the fields of drug delivery, drug discovery, translational medicine and value assessment and health outcomes research.