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Daniel Leung, MD, MSc, Awarded NIH Grant for Mobile Health Tool in Bangladesh

Daniel Leung, MD, MSc, Receives NIH Grant for Improving Antibiotic Stewardship

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Daniel Leung, MD, MSc, Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah, funding for the R33 phase of a multi-year research project to improve antibiotic stewardship among village doctors in rural Bangladesh. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) award supports years 3 through 5 of the research project titled "A mobile health tool to improve antibiotic stewardship among village doctors in Bangladesh". 

Daniel Leung

This project builds on the R21 phase of the study. It focuses on using mobile health (mHealth) technology to empower local healthcare providers with tools to increase the appropriate use of antibiotics for diarrheal illness in children. By addressing the widespread issue of antibiotic misuse, the project aims to reduce antimicrobial resistance, a global health concern. Dr. Leung, the project’s Contact Principal Investigator (PI), leads this effort alongside collaborators from the University of Florida and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (Icddr,b).

The interdisciplinary research team also includes faculty members from the University of Utah, such as Benjamin Brintz, PhD, from the Division of Epidemiology and Melissa Watt, PhD, from the Department of Population Health Sciences, both serving as co-investigators. Their expertise in biostatistics and qualitative methods supports the project’s goal of delivering sustainable healthcare interventions accessible in resource-limited settings.

Dr. Leung holds the Dr. Thomas D. Rees and Natalie B. Rees Presidential Endowed Chair in Global Medicine and has an extensive background in infectious diseases, with clinical experience across Asia, Africa, and South America. He received his medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, followed by a residency at the University of Washington and fellowships at Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

The success of this mobile health initiative promises to serve as a model for improving healthcare delivery and antibiotic use among informal practitioners in underserved areas, addressing a key factor in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

For more details, the project abstract can be found here.