Subbian's digital health project wins Big Idea Challenge
Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, U of A senior vice president for research and partnerships, delivers remarks at the May 12 pitch event for the Big Idea Challenge. Six teams, all made up of experts from across campus, have been chosen as the challenge's inaugural awardees.
Leslie Hawthorne Klingler/Office of Research and Partnerships
The University of Arizona's Office of Research and Partnerships has awarded six research projects as part of the 2025 Big Idea Challenge. Among these winners was the Convergent Digital Health for Remote Access (CoDiRA) project, co-led by BME associate professor Vignesh Subbian.
The projects were awarded based on how well they reflected transdisciplinary research that crosses traditional academic boundaries, integrating perspectives from science, engineering, business and humanities to create solutions to global challenges. In addition, teams needed to illustrate how projects would launch high-impact, large-scale research efforts with the power to attract major external funding.
"The teams selected as awardees of the 2025 Big Idea Challenge exemplify the kind of visionary thinking and convergent research that define Arizona’s research enterprise," said Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, U of A senior vice president for research and partnerships. "They are not only pushing scientific boundaries, they are building solutions with real-world impact for Arizona and the world."
CoDiRA will use artificial intelligence to reimagine healthcare as decentralized, personalized and continuously accessible. It aims to substantially reduce global healthcare disparities and improve health outcomes, particularly for historically marginalized and underserved populations. Its modular, scalable approach uniquely positions it as a model for rapid, global deployment — particularly within low-resource and rural environments.