SAN DIEGO – The West Wireless Health Institute, one of world's first medical research organizations dedicated to advancing health and well-being through the use of wireless technologies, has received a $45 million contribution from the Gary and Mary West Foundation.

The foundation is a nonprofit, grant-making organization based in Carlsbad, Calif. Its founder and chairman, Gary West, will serve on the West Wireless Health Institute's board of directors.

West will be joined by Eric J. Topol, holder of the Gary and Mary West chair of Innovative Medicine and chief academic officer at Scripps Health, a nonprofit, community-based healthcare delivery network in San Diego, and Donald Jones, vice president of Health and Life Sciences at Qualcomm, a San Diego-based provider of digital wireless communications.

"We believe this emerging field will completely transform healthcare as we know it," said West. "The institute aims to be the catalyst to move ideas and concepts quickly into reality, bringing cost-effective wireless health solutions to doctors, patients and their families."

Under the leadership of Topol the institute and its research team will conduct clinical research on solutions to better prevent, diagnose, manage and treat major health conditions ranging from Alzheimer's to heart disease to obesity. The institute will build a base of biomedical and bioengineering expertise to ensure that devices in development improve the existing level of care and are safe, reliable and cost-effective.

"The rapid and remarkable progress in wireless sensors – continuously tracking important parameters such as blood sugar, blood pressure, all vital signs, sleep state and even caloric intake and expenditure – has the potential to change medicine in a radical and unprecedented way," said Topol. "Not only does this fit the optimal models of individualized and consumer-driven healthcare, but there is tremendous potential to upgrade quality of care, reduce the cost burden and shift away from reactive to preventive medicine."

Jones and the institute's engineering team will lead the integration of wireless technology with the clinical research activity.

"The institute will enable inventors, medical device makers and others to hatch, nurture and refine their ideas for wireless health solutions," said Jones. "We believe the launch of the West Wireless Health Institute will lead to levels of care never before seen in the delivery of healthcare."

The institute's board of directors has launched a global search for a chief executive officer.