The Future IS

UA’s I³R a catalyst for innovation through integrative health

The Institute for Integrative & Innovative Research (I³R) at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville has been featured in recent news as its researchers developed and are evaluating new technology that uses neurostimulation to restore the sense of touch to people who use a prosthetic hand.

The procedure, performed earlier this year by surgeons at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, represented only the second time such a prosthetic limb with the tech had ever been implanted on a person.

But the institute is about much more than that. The National Science Foundation stated that “the grand challenges of today — protecting human health; understanding the food, energy, water nexus; exploring the universe at all scales — will not be solved by one discipline alone. They require convergence: the merging of ideas, approaches and technologies from widely diverse fields of knowledge to stimulate innovation and discovery.”

And that’s where I³R comes in. Ranu Jung, associate vice chancellor and founding executive director, said the institute is addressing different “ecosystems,” growing and strengthening them through convergence strategy. Jung said the institute’s first “grand challenge” is integrative health and identified three projects underway as examples of research addressing it.

“The evaluation of the neural-enabled prosthetic hand system in Arkansas was launched earlier this year,” Jung said. “It’s been active for several years, and we continue to recruit new participants for the clinical trial. We also will be announcing an important milestone and significant expansion of this project in the coming weeks.”

Within integrative health, many individual challenges await the institute’s attention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the state, followed by cancer, COVID-19, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, influenza and pneumonia. The institute is addressing these problems through health, food and the cyber technology related to both.

“I³R impacts the lives of Arkansans in multiple ways,” said Delia Garcia, the in-