Richard Lester
Dr. Richard Lester’s research interest includes clinical infectious diseases management, global health, and the use of mobile communication technologies for health service delivery (mHealth) for infectious and chronic diseases.
While doing basic science (immunology) research in Kenya, he co-developed a program that harnesses mobile phone communications between patients and caregivers to improve HIV/AIDS care and treatment. This randomized clinical trial evaluating the program (WelTel Kenya1, Lancet 2010) landmarked evidence for the potential for mHealth to improve health outcomes in resource limited settings.
In a form of “reverse innovation” (or better – simply ‘global health’) he has brought the WelTel program back to Canada and other parts of the world to adapt the same low-cost innovation to improve patient care and outcomes in different settings and for management of different health conditions.
Publications
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Lester+Richard%5BAuthor%5D
Affiliation
- University: University of British Columbia
- Faculty: Medicine
- Department: Medicine
- Position: Associate Professor