Research

Medical specialists often can’t—or choose not to—work in rural emergency departments. But Scott Findley, a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine, and his colleagues are using telehealth to close that gap. They have received a $1.2 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to support telehealth at four rural emergency departments in West Virginia. Findley and his colleagues will connect the four emergency departments with WVU Medicine specialists in Morgantown.

Virgin Hyperloop announced Thursday, Oct. 8, that it will locate a certification facility on nearly 800 acres of land spanning Tucker and Grant counties where it will leverage intellectual capital and resources from West Virginia University, Marshall University and from across the state.

Despite longwall mining being an efficient way of extracting coal, it produces dangerous methane gas that has the potential to lead to explosions in underground mines. Researchers from West Virginia University are combatting this issue by developing an improved methane monitoring network to increase the safety of longwall mines.

You could say Seattle came alive with more than an even flow of tourism dollars from a pair of highly-anticipated Pearl Jam concerts, according to rockin’ new research by West Virginia University economists.

Though it makes up roughly 70 percent of the universe, dark energy is one of the greatest cosmological discoveries that is the least understood among scientists. A new project led by West Virginia University researcher Kevin Bandura will help scientists understand the nature of dark energy by mapping out the distribution of matter throughout the universe.

Just because it’s legal to buy emergency contraception over the counter doesn’t mean it’s easy. In a new study led by Amie Ashcraft—a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine—chain pharmacies were more likely than smaller, independent ones to keep emergency contraception in stock. Chain pharmacies also made it easier to access and provided more information about its effectiveness.

A three-year collaborative project to develop a new low-cost process to convert the natural gas that is commonly flared at industrial sites could benefit a number of industrial sectors including the carbon fiber industry, carbon composite, electronics, electrical arc steel making, polymer additives and many others, all while having a positive effect on the economy and environment.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainties in the higher education world, West Virginia University received $195 million in external funding for research and other sponsored programs this past fiscal year.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. A new study to be conducted by the West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh seeks to change that. The National Eye Institute recently awarded the universities $15.2 million to study how a treatment called selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) can be better used to treat glaucoma.

Dr. Sally Hodder, director of the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute headquartered at WVU, will lead an eight-state consortium that will contribute to a national COVID-19 data resource, thanks to a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health grant.