SRTI, Stanford Health Launch mHealth Consortium for COVID-19 Research

Two mHealth research projects aimed at examining the value of wearables in tracking and treating people with infectious diseases like the Coronavirus are pooling their resources.

The Scripps Research Translational Institute and Stanford Medicine are creating a consortium and inviting others to join the effort to study how telehealth can be applied to research projects. Also joining the consortium is Fitbit, whose wearables are being used in both programs.

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“By bringing together these and other leaders in scientific research, we hope to rapidly advance science and innovation in the fight against COVID-19 by promoting consumer participation in critical research efforts, supporting frontline healthcare workers with donated wearable devices, and sharing learnings quickly and openly across research partners,” Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park said in a press release.

Last month, San Diego-based SRTI launched DETECT, a national effort to gather data from smartwatches and activity trackers to analyze how activity, heart rate, sleep patterns and other connected health data can be integrated into a public health surveillance program. Participants are asked to upload their data through the MyDataHelps app.

“In light of the ongoing flu season and the global pandemic of COVID-19, we see enormous opportunity to enhance disease tracking for improved population health,” said Jennifer Radin, PhD, an SRTI epidemiologist who is leading the study. “One way to do this is to leverage and analyze the rich health data that’s already being collected by the millions of Americans who regularly use wearable devices.”

At around the same time, the Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab launched the COVID-19 Wearables Study, which aims to determine whether data gathered from wearables, including heart rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen saturation, can be used to predict the onset of a disease like COVID-19 before symptoms are evident.

“COVID-19 has presented a daunting challenge to medical researchers around the globe,” Michael Snyder, PhD, the project’s leader and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said in the press release. “Through this consortium, we’ll coordinate efforts to improve our understanding of how technology can serve to benefit human health, and continue the pioneering work we’ve led for the past decade exploring the promise of personalized medicine to predict and prevent disease.”

“From our previously published work, we know that data collected from consumer wearables can significantly improve the prediction of influenza-like illness,” added Eric Topol, SRTI’s Director and Founder. “We see an enormous opportunity to enhance disease tracking for improved population health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are pleased to join this new consortium to bring value to the research community.”