Ottawa – Carleton University will lead a special project to investigate how sensors and computer software can enhance the health care of Canadians.

The project is one of three major initiatives comprising the new Healthcare Support Through Information Technology Enhancements (hSITE) Strategic Research Network announced Thursday by the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology).

“hSITE is an innovative communications system and infrastructure that will help health care clinicians deliver more effective and safe patient care that will lead to better health care for you and me,” says Dr. Rafik Goubran, project leader and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Carleton. “Carleton is a leader in biomedical research.”

hSITE research targets advances in the areas of wireless communications, networking, sensors, signal processing and smart systems with the goal of developing a smart infrastructure that seamlessly offers intelligence, dependability, ease of use and flexibility to meet the demanding and challenging requirements of a clinical environment.

The network is led by McGill University. The Carleton project involves a team of 15 co-researchers, including four from the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering: Dr. Rafik Goubran, Dr. Dorina Petriu, Dr. Peter Liu and Dr. Frank Knoefel. Six other universities are involved as well as several clinical and industry partners.

Carleton’s share of the $6.3-million hSITE funding will be approximately $1.8 million over the next five years. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) will fund close to $5 million of the costs.

Dr. Goubran has led many research projects in the areas of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), sensors, noise and echo cancellation, microphone arrays and the design of smart independent living environments for seniors. He is a research scientist at the Elisabeth Bruyère Research Institute (EBRI) and the co-leader of the Technology Assisted Environment for the Third Age (TAFETA) project. Dr. Goubran is the founding director of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering (OCIBME).