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mHealth Project to Crowdsource Consumer Data for Coronavirus Research
UCSF researchers are deploying an mHealth app to gather information on daily health habits
They’re hoping to gain insight on how behaviors might affect the course of the virus or outcomes in those who are infected
March 31, 2020 – mHealth researchers are using smartphones to crowdsource Coronavirus research.
The University of California at San Francisco has launched COVID-19 Citizen Science (CCS), a project aimed at gathering insights from people around the world on the virus. Participants are being asked to download an mHealth app, complete a survey about their daily health habits, complete a weekly follow-up survey and pass it on to friends.
“We are asking each participant to share the link to recruit at least five others,†Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, a professor at UCSF’s Department of Medicine and the project’s co-leader, said in a press release. “We want to demonstrate that the number of people signing up for this scientific study and contributing their data can increase exponentially, faster than the disease itself.â€
Participants will also be able to provide continuous GPS data and information from mHealth wearables, such as Fitbit activity bands and smartwatches.
(For more coronavirus updates, visit our resource page, updated twice daily by Xtelligent Healthcare Media.)
Marcos is no stranger to telehealth projects. In 2013 he helped to launch the Health eHeart Study, which used online and mHealth tools to collect and analyze heart health data. That, in turn, led to the launch of a study in 2018 that combined mHealth wearables with AI to determine whether a cardiac monitoring platform could help detect early signs of diabetes.
Marcos says CCS aims to identify behaviors, influences and factors that might affect the course of the virus and outcomes after infection, and he feels the study could be the largest-ever prospective epidemiological study of infectious diseases.
“Social distancing keeps many protected,†he said, “but joining together to contribute data will help us beat this thing.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:02 PM on Tuesday, March 31st, 2020
SPONSOR: CardioComm Solutions (EKG: TSX-V)
– The heartbeat of cardiovascular medicine and telemedicine. Patented
systems enable medical professionals, patients, and other healthcare
professionals, clinics, hospitals and call centres to access and manage
patient information in a secure and reliable environment.
‘Smart’ devices help reduce adverse outcomes of common heart condition
mHealth devices, such as fitness trackers, smart watches and mobile phones, may enable earlier AF detection, and improved AF management through the use of photoplethysmography (PPG) technology
AF is the most common heart rhythm disturbance, affecting around one million people in the UK. People with AF are at increased risk of having a stroke and dying, as well as heart failure and dementia
A new study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology,
highlights the feasible use of mobile health (mHealth) devices to help
with the screening and detection of a common heart condition.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a heart rhythm condition that causes an
irregular and sometimes, abnormally fast heart rate. In AF, the heart’s
upper chambers (atria) contract randomly and sometimes so fast that the
heart muscle cannot relax properly between contractions. This reduces
the heart’s efficiency and performance—but also leads to a higher risk
of blood clots.
AF is the most common heart rhythm disturbance, affecting around one
million people in the UK. People with AF are at increased risk of having
a stroke and dying, as well as heart failure and dementia. Currently,
low detection due to lack of visible symptoms and non-adherence are
major problems in current management approaches for patients with
suspected AF.
Photoplethysmography technology
mHealth devices, such as fitness trackers, smart watches
and mobile phones, may enable earlier AF detection, and improved AF
management through the use of photoplethysmography (PPG) technology.
PPG is a simple and low-cost optical technique that can be used to
detect blood volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue. It is
often used non-invasively to make measurements at the skin surface.
To help determine whether a mHealth technology-supported AF
integrated management strategy would reduce AF-related adverse events,
compared to usual care, an international team of researchers, led by
Associate Professor Guo from Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing,
and Professor Gregory Lip, Lead for the Liverpool Centre for
Cardiovascular Science (LCCC)/Price-Evans Chair of Cardiovascular
Medicine at University of Liverpool, conducted a randomised trial.
Central to the study was mobile health technologies developed by
leading global technology companies, with a focus on using wearable
smart devices such as those from Huawei, working in conjunction with a
specially developed mobile app. These pieces of equipment and software
can monitor a person’s vital signs with great detail and, most
importantly for this study, 24 hours a day.
The specially designed mobile app
not only charted the patient’s biometrics, it afforded clinicians the
ability to offer integrated care throughout the duration of the trial.
Doctors were able to periodically assess the patient’s updated
statistics and contact them through the app to offer advice via the ABC
care pathway. The ABC pathway, developed in part by the LCCS’ Professor
Gregory Lip, is a set of guidance for patients and clinicians, which
aims to promote a streamlined holistic approach to the management of AF, and ensure that the danger of complications is minimised.
The researchers enrolled a cluster of 3,324 AF patients aged over 18
years from 40 cities across China. The patients were randomized with
1678 receiving usual care and 1646 receiving integrated care based on a
mobile AF Application (mAFA) incorporating the ABC Pathway: ‘A’ Avoid
stroke; ‘B’ Better symptom management; ‘C’ Cardiovascular and other
comorbidity risk reduction. All patients were followed up in outpatient
clinics at 6 and 12 months.
Results
Upon completion of the study, the researchers were able to show that
occurrences of stroke, systemic thromboembolism, death and
rehospitalisation were significantly lower with those patients in the
mHealth intervention group compared to those undergoing usual care (1.9%
compared with 6%). Rehospitalisation rates were also notably reduced,
with only 1.2% of patients in the intervention group needing to be
readmitted to hospital, in comparison to 4.5% of patients in the control
group.
In addition to these positive figures, subgroup analyses by gender,
age, type of condition, risk score and comorbidities, demonstrated
consistently lower risks for the composite outcome for patients
receiving the mAFA intervention compared to usual care.
These results show an undeniable benefit for the adoption of an
integrated approach to monitoring and treating cardiac conditions such
as AF.
With smart technologies such as phones, watches and integrated smart
home systems becoming increasingly accessible and affordable, the
ability for clinicians and researchers to adopt this technology to
passively and unobtrusively gather a seemingly unlimited amount of data
and information on the global health population is offering boundless
opportunity for assessing and treating all manner of diseases and
conditions.
Integrated care approach
Associate Professor Guo, said: “Our study clearly highlights the need
for an integrated care approach to holistic AF care, supported by
mobile health technology, as it help to reduce the risks of
rehospitalisation and clinical adverse events.”
Professor Lip, said: “Improved AF care requires early detection which
enables the implementation of the priorities of AF management, which is
as ‘easy as ABC’: Avoid stroke; Better symptom optimisation;
Cardiovascular and risk factor management. Our clinical trial shows how
the mAFA App and smart devices can improve detection of AF and the
holistic management of AF patients, improving outcomes in this common
heart rhythm disorder.”
