7 Projects to Develop New Digital Health Applications Gain Funding

The University of Utah Health (U of U Health) Digital Health Initiative (DHI) extended seed grants to seven projects that aim to develop and evaluate digital health applications. 

Despite the ongoing development of numerous digital health applications, research indicates that many do not reach their goals and are not effective, according to a university press release. In 2019, the 25 top-funded American producers of digital health tools analyzed studies that indicated that products often have a limited effect on health outcomes.

“There’s been a surge in the use of digital health applications in the past few years, both by patients and their doctors,” said Guilherme Del Fiol, MD, PhD, co-director of DHI and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at U of U Health, in the press release. “But how many of these apps actually work as intended? Most are promoted with little or no rigorous scientific evidence.”

Seven seed grant projects from the DHI aim to support the future development of clinically effective digital health applications. Receiving up to $50,000 for one year, the grant recipients represent 11 U of U Health disciplines. The projects selected relate to one of four areas of DHI interest: mobile apps and games for health, virtual reality and sensors, clinical decision support tools, and integration with EHRs.

Led by Andrea Wallace, PhD, Roger Altizer, PhD, and Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD, an example of a seed grant recipient is a project that aims to assist patients in self-managing health conditions through a digital resource planner. Known as the “Going Home Toolkit,” this digital resource planner contains sections related to transportation, errands, and more.

Another seed grant recipient aims to gather data on geriatric patients from mobile devices like a Fitbit, and through conversations with the research team, help them better understand how to manage their health. Led by Jorie Butler, PhD, this project is focused on assisting patients aged 65 and older with chronic pain.

Further, a seed grant will support new research on U of U Health's Symptom Care at Home program, which helps cancer patients manage symptoms occurring during treatment through a mobile application or the phone. The grant will enable researchers to study how the program can incorporate patient-reported symptoms into EHRs.

Victoria Tiase, PhD, RN, director of strategic development at DHI, noted that successful projects would move onto clinical trials to test their tool's abilities in a larger arena.

“Clinicians treating patients at the bedside need better efficiency today,” said Tiase in the press release. “So, we need to get more practical and effective digital tools in the pipeline. We hope that these seed grants will be a jumping-off point for that effort.”

Efforts to create and apply digital health applications through various partnerships are also growing.

In January 2022, for example, the West Virginia University Health System (WVU Medicine) began a partnership with digital health company Virta Health to offer its virtual diabetes treatment to in-state eligible employees.

WVU Medicine noted that the goal of the partnership was to improve type 2 diabetes outcome measures while potentially helping patients reach a point of remission that would not require medication.