In the spirit of scholarly exchange, Chung-Ang University today announced a formal partnership with several University of Utah entities focused on the development of digital telehealth innovations through shared knowledge and best practices.

U entities participating in the exchange include: University of Utah Hospital; University of Utah Health Care Telehealth; the U Brain Institute; and the Research Center for Digital Wellbeing.

Telehealth enhances both clinical and non-clinical healthcare services through social, mobile analytic and cloud technologies to diagnose and treat disease.

The partnership is an addition to an already existing agreement signed in 2015 between the David Eccles School of Business, the Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation and Chung-Ang University (CAU), which served as a catalyst for the creation of the Research Center for Digital Wellbeing that has a branch at the University of Utah extension on the CAU campus in Songdo, South Korea.

The organizations have a longstanding relationship of collaboration in digital gaming, including game development and innovative gaming business model strategies. They hope to use these gaming strategies to develop solutions to complex medical problems.

University of Utah and CAU will now focus on the promotion and exchange of knowledge, faculty and research, in order to improve and create new digital health innovations both in the U.S. and Korea. The partnership will benefit both organizations by offering potentially funded research in telehealth advancement from academic medical centers in both the U.S. and Korea, research around TeleAcute Care programs and modules in Korea, and technology-connected healthcare models in Korea.

Chris Wasden, Ed.D., executive director and professor of innovation at the David Eccles School of Business Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation at the University of Utah, is an international leader in digital health innovation and a driving force behind the partnership.

“We will be sharing our different approaches to digital health in Korea, the U.S. and other countries to try and learn from best practices, what works and what doesn’t,” said Wasden.

CAU CEO Dr. Seong Deok Kim, Executive Director Dr. Wonyong Kim, and Associate Professor Dr. Doug Han are visiting Salt Lake City this week and meeting with University of Utah leadership. Dr. Han completed training at the University of Utah and was instrumental in bringing the partnership to fruition.

“The U and CAU are the perfect match when it comes to promoting and expanding digital health care,” Han said. “CAU Hospital is an ideal environment to apply and expand digital healthcare because it is very close to IT and game companies in Korea. The digital expertise of CAU combined with the innovative approach methods at the University of Utah will be very synergic in digital healthcare.”

The partnership was formalized during a signing ceremony at the University of Utah on Nov. 3.