Center for Health and Business (CHB) Seed Funding

Center for Health and Business (CHB) Seed Funding is sponsored by Bentley University. Offers seed funding to support innovative health-related initiatives.

CHB Research | Bentley University | Bentley University Center for Health and Business The Center for Health and Business stimulates and supports innovative, high-impact research that advances Bentley’s role in the evolving health ecosystem. Through exclusive research assistantships, collaborative initiatives and seed funding, we empower faculty, staff and students to engage directly with the health industry.

From implementation science and AI-driven innovation to health communication and global equity, our research portfolio reflects a broad commitment to applied, interdisciplinary work. We champion these efforts across campus and with external partners, amplify their impact and help shape solutions that improve health systems and outcomes.

External Research Assistantships These external research assistantships offer Bentley students the chance to gain hands-on experience with leading health companies at the forefront of innovation. Students explore real-world challenges and emerging trends in health care through a business-focused lens. Research assistants are also part of the CHB Student Leadership and Impact Program.

Brownstein Consulting, LLC Brownstein Consulting, LLC helps healthcare providers and solution developers drive innovation in health care delivery . They offer guidance on technology adoption, treatment models and clinic operations while helping design products and services that enhance efficiency and patient care.

2025-26 Research Assistant - Long Doan - MS Human Factors in Information Design '26 Inlightened is one of the fastest-growing health care insights companies . Bridging the knowledge gap in health care innovation with comprehensive solutions placing experts at the forefront, they provide client organizations access to on-demand expertise, via an unparalleled network of curated, vetted and engaged healthcare professionals.

2025-26 Finance Research Assistant - Mason Hatfield - Finance '27 2025-26 Data Analytics Research Assistant - Adriana Lasso - Bachelor of Science, Data Analytics, '26 2025-26 Marketing & Data Analytics Research Assistant - Michael Shehata - Mathematics & Computer Information Systems '29 2025-26 Marketing Research Assistant - Megan Tucker - Marketing & Creative Studies ''26 MeMed BV is a biotechnology company that developed the first FDA-cleared host-immune response assay capable of accurately distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections in approximately 15 minutes.

2025-26 Research Assistant - Megan Johnson - Data Analytics and Mathematical Sciences '26, Candidate for Master of Science in Business Analytics '27 Through this partnership with unBurnt , the CHB and Center for Women in Business are designing and launching a research study focusing on the root cause of burnout and the impact of chronic stress and overwork in workplaces.

2025-26 Research Assistant - Kingsolomon Ehinola - Masters in Business Analytics, concentration: Data Science '26 This collection of whitepapers highlights our latest research and industry insights on the evolving intersection of health and business. When Burnout Looks Like Productivity: The New Risk to Innovation Capacity A white paper collaboration between the Center for Health and Business and UnBurnt .

Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Business Opportunities and Ethical Challenges. A white paper collaboration between the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics and the Center for Health and Business. An insight report informed by the Global AI Summit on Health Care hosted by Bentley University with partners, the Future Talent Council.

An insight report developed out of content from the 2024 Global AI Summit on Life Sciences with partners the Future Talent Council. Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing in the Workplace: Employees Entering the Workforce A collaboration between the Center for Women and Business, Center for Health and Business (formally the Health TLN) and the Ruderman Family Foundation.

Health Initiative Seed Funding The Center for Health and Business offers seed funding to support innovative health-related initiatives at Bentley. Our aim is to foster and expand health-focused collaborations, networks and opportunities for students and research endeavors.

The Bentley community can apply for CHB seed funding to support health-related research (IRB approval required), conference participation or sponsorship, collaborative projects, or on-campus programming such as guest lectures or professional talks. Funding is intended to advance initiatives at the intersection of health and business.

Revolutionizing Healthcare Cost Accounting Through AI This project's goal is to develop AI algorithms that can accurately predict patient care costs, enhance resource allocation efficiency and analyze the financial impacts of various healthcare protocols, using large datasets from healthcare providers to train and test AI models.

By integrating AI with healthcare financial management, the project aims to uncover innovative methods for cost prediction, resource optimization and economic evaluation of treatment approaches. This project positions Bentley as a leader in producing relevant, impactful research in healthcare finance and AI.

Representation Learning from Electronic Health Records Data The wealth of valuable real-world medical data found within Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems is particularly significant in disease phenotyping and patient clustering. Our research proposes to model the counts of EHR concepts and the binary phenotype for a target disease.

This will allow patients with similar profiles to be grouped together, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical research, leading to more personalized healthcare recommendations and improved management of diseases.

Digital Platform Usage, Digital Literacy and Familial Health Potential Digital technologies have supported psychological, emotional, and physical well-being, including access to mental health professionals, services to support food insecurity, financial support services, and education. The understanding needed to use a touchscreen, navigate two-step authentication, and manage AI may be the greatest hurdle in full health potential.

However, there is limited research on vulnerable populations' digital access and literacy skills and the relationship to health-based outcomes. Reach out to collaborate with the CHB! Virtual Communications Research Lab The Center for Health and Business supports a robust international collaboration between researchers at Bentley, McGill, and Brown Universities.

The mission of the Virtual Communications Research (VCR) Lab is to leverage immersive technologies to study and improve the human experience of communication in healthcare. The group conducts research in serious illness communication and palliative care using advanced virtual reality platforms. Each year, the CHB hosts one or two visiting scholars at Bentley University.

During the visit, they present formally to the Bentley community through a campus-wide address, advise faculty engaged in health-related research and discuss individual research projects, spend time on Bentley’s campus learning about our health-related initiatives and engage around the strategic positioning and direction of the CHB. Dr Keelan Evanini is a Lead Research Scientist at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME).

NBME is a non-profit that, along with the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), co-sponsors and administers the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) that every aspiring medical doctor must pass for licensure in the United States. At NBME, Dr. Evanini spearheads initiatives at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), assessment, and education.

His current work focuses on developing AI-driven systems to enhance medical practitioners’ emotional intelligence and conversational skills—critical competencies that foster patient trust, improve diagnostic accuracy, and elevate overall patient satisfaction. Dr. Evanini looks at it from the perspective of a valid and reliable large-scale assessment deployment and an ethical use of AI perspective.

Dr Evanini will join us on campus in April 2026. Dr. Mary Hardy, board certified in internal medicine and a specialist in botanical and integrative medicine, has actively combined complementary and alternative therapies with traditional Western medicine for over thirty-five years in both her clinical practice and research projects.

After completing her undergraduate studies at Vassar College, she returned to her hometown, New Orleans, to attend medical school at Louisiana State University. She then completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center.

In 1998, Dr. Hardy founded the Integrative Medicine Clinic at Cedars-Sinai and participated in a National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (the Federal Government’s lead agency for scientific research in this area) funded research project that evaluated the barriers and facilitators of Integrative Medicine practice based on her clinic.

She also has extensive experience in evaluating the evidence base for the efficacy and safety of complementary/ integrative medicine as part of her work as a research associate at the RAND Corporation (a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization). In March of 2025, the CHB hosted a free public screening of Dottie: A Film About Dementia and Empathy . Dottie is a 20-minute, award-winning short film co-written by C.

Robin Marcotte and Jeff Stern , a Distinguished Lecturer in Bentley University’s English & Media Studies Department. The film was produced in partnership with Articine , a nonprofit that bridges arts and medicine and narrated by Ken Stuckey , an Assistant Professor also in Bentley’s English and Media Studies.

The film explores the lived experience of dementia, focusing on themes of empathy, embodied memory and the dignity of those affected, including both patients and caregivers. After the film, attendees were invited to meet the cast and production team and discuss the film with Bentley faculty along with members of Articine. Rochelle Walensky, M.

D. , M. P.

H former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visited Bentley University in fall 2024. During her visit, she engaged with students in the Business of Health (ID 320) course, leading a discussion on the intersection of health, government and society and sharing insights from her own career.

Before her time at the CDC, Dr. Walensky served as a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and later as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Dr. Marquardt is an Economist in the economics research department at Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She is a member of the microeconomics team and conducts research in the field of health economics.

She leads the national conversation on the economics of child mental health and wellbeing and she contributes to the Fed's regional and national policy missions. Dr. Marquardt's presentation was entitled Health Economics at the Chicago Fed: A look at big pharma, nursing home competition and ADHD drug shortages. Due to the sensitive nature of her job, the event was not recorded.

Professor and Chair of the School of Professional Communication, Toronto Metropolitan University Jessica Mudry is Professor and Chair of the School of Professional Communication at Toronto Metropolitan University.

She is an organic chemist, after which she moved to science communication, media production and research for the BBC and the Discovery Channel - she continues to create for the annual World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, ZDF, and NSERC. Her scholarship focuses on the languages of science, health and medicine in politics and popular culture.

She is the Director of the Creative School's Healthcare User Experience (HUE) Lab where her work in health communication and health equity finds a good home. She is an associate scientist at St. Michael's Hospital and she works closely with the department of surgery there on a variety of medical humanities projects.

She teaches health communication in the MPH program, and has been an Erasmus Scholar, at the École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique (EHESP) in France, and has completed several courses at Harvard University's Medical School. Her past academic projects have included work in Food Studies; Science and Technology Studies; Public Health, and Environmental Communication.

She has been awarded funding from NSERC, SSHRC, MITACS, FQRSC and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Clinician-Investigator and Physician Leader As a clinician-investigator and physician leader, Dr. Justin Sanders ' work focuses on the promotion of authentic healing relationships in serious illness through social science informed and equity-focused communication and implementation research.

He is the co-founder of the Virtual Communications Research Lab (VCR) at Bentley University. Dr. Sanders presented on Virtual Reality and the Patient Experience: Serious Illness, Healing Relationships and the Potential for Immersive Technologies to Improve Patient Experience Dr. Roland J. Thorpe, Jr. Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Dr. Roland J.

Thorpe, Jr. joined us for three days in March 2019 and presented on how he built the Black Men's Health Project and other studies on Black Men's Health. From the its website: "The Black Men's Health Project is the largest and most comprehensive initiative of its kind in U.S. history.

The mission of the Black Men's Health Project is to gain a deeper understanding of the unique health challenges of Black men and develop culturally competent strategies and solutions to improve the health outcomes for Black men." (Note that you must be part of the Bentley community to view the video.)

Adjunct Professor, University of Arizona Dr. Tanniru's research focuses on digital leadership in health care, looking at innovations in patient care delivery services enabled by advanced technology, and the effective strategies health care facilities have to use to incorporate these innovations in support of continuity of care inside and outside the hospital walls.

Dr. Tanniru presented on Digital Leadership in Healthcare: An Enabling Leadership to Support Health Care Transformation. Dr Anthony (Tony) Suchman University of Rochester Medical Center Dr. Suchman's work focuses on organizational change and how people can work together more effectively across all levels of health care.

Through his teaching and writing (more than 90 articles and book chapters and the book Partnerships in Healthcare: Transforming Relational Process. He has become a leading proponent of a partnership-based clinical approach known as Relationship-Centered Care. Dr. Suchman presented a seminar titled: Tending the Space Between: Interdependence and the Relational Core of Integrated Health Systems.

Past Student Opportunities National Institutes of Health Grant Research Assistants Bentley was awarded its first National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant as a primary awardee for a 3-year, student focused research project titled “COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake & Risk Mitigation Behaviors: Understanding the Role of Institutional Trust. ” You can learn more about the grant via this Bentley news story .

Valente Center Undergraduate Health Researchers The CHB sponsored undergraduate researchers through a Valente Center program whose research was related to health.

Health was defined very broadly, and topics considered included, but were not limited to, healthcare systems and administration, health-related technology and innovation, patient experience and health care information, and how biological, psychological, and social factors impacted health.

2024-2025 Valente Center CHB Undergraduate Researcher Olivia Muehlberg '25 - Data Analytics Major Putting our Heads Together: The Impact of Concussions on Player Value in Major Sports 2023-2024 Valente Center CHB Undergraduate Researchers Rene Umaña '26 - Finance Major Smartphone Use and its Impact on Cognition Laksana Rachman '27 - Economics-Finance Major Estimating the Tangible Economic Costs of Rape in Indonesia It was extremely important to me to join a university that had a central hub for health care scholars, a place that supported research, assisted in amplifying the projects of faculty and provided financial support for education and greater community engagement related to the economics of health care.

Simply, the CHB attracted me to Bentley. And I am extremely grateful for the network’s support. Assistant Professor in Economics Tuition and Financial Aid Student Accessibility Services Research, Centers and Labs Diversity, Equity and Inclusion