Stanford program offers 1,000 Apple Watches, funding for healthcare research proposals
Stanford University is offering to hand out up to 1,000 Apple Watches and up to $10,000 in funding to instructors and members of the faculty, as part of a new program to find innovative ways to use the Apple Watch in healthcare.
The Stanford Center for Digital Health, part of the School of Medicine, is inviting applications for its inaugural seed grant program for the Apple Watch. The program is designed to "stimulate and support creative uses" of the Apple Watch in the field, states the request for proposals, with "high impact projects" positively influencing the study population or the clinical workflow of particular interest to the center.
Proposals need to incorporate the Apple Watch into the program in one of two ways, in order to be accepted. One option is to take advantage of the sensing capabilities of the Apple Watch, including activity monitoring, raw accelerometer data, and heart rate, to measure the progress of the study population, or alternately use the communication and notification features of the wearable device to drive changes in behavior and to coach users.
Investigators are required to use an iOS app with a watchOS app extension, or design a workflow for push notifications to be delivered to the Apple Watch. Development of an app for the project isn't required, but support is offered in the event one needs to be created.
As part of the program, aggregated, anonymized data collected from the projects will be shared with the Center for Digital Health, as well as a number of study affiliates.
Selected projects will receive up to 1,000 Apple Watches for the study, as well as a grant of up to $10,000 to cover direct costs for one year, starting from April 2017. Applications are due by February 26, with awardees notified in March.
The seed grant program follows after a number of other health-related research projects Stanford has undertaken using Apple's tools. HealthKit was used to enable diabetes medical trials at Stanford Children's Health in 2014, while the ResearchKit platform helped Stanford University with a cardiovascular study in 2015.
The Stanford Center for Digital Health, part of the School of Medicine, is inviting applications for its inaugural seed grant program for the Apple Watch. The program is designed to "stimulate and support creative uses" of the Apple Watch in the field, states the request for proposals, with "high impact projects" positively influencing the study population or the clinical workflow of particular interest to the center.
Proposals need to incorporate the Apple Watch into the program in one of two ways, in order to be accepted. One option is to take advantage of the sensing capabilities of the Apple Watch, including activity monitoring, raw accelerometer data, and heart rate, to measure the progress of the study population, or alternately use the communication and notification features of the wearable device to drive changes in behavior and to coach users.
Investigators are required to use an iOS app with a watchOS app extension, or design a workflow for push notifications to be delivered to the Apple Watch. Development of an app for the project isn't required, but support is offered in the event one needs to be created.
As part of the program, aggregated, anonymized data collected from the projects will be shared with the Center for Digital Health, as well as a number of study affiliates.
Selected projects will receive up to 1,000 Apple Watches for the study, as well as a grant of up to $10,000 to cover direct costs for one year, starting from April 2017. Applications are due by February 26, with awardees notified in March.
The seed grant program follows after a number of other health-related research projects Stanford has undertaken using Apple's tools. HealthKit was used to enable diabetes medical trials at Stanford Children's Health in 2014, while the ResearchKit platform helped Stanford University with a cardiovascular study in 2015.
Comments
I'm here all week.
Don't leave without trying the cheesecake.
It's like a bunch of students are trying to figure out how to pass an exam, but they only read comic books and never go to class.
and current location, could a couple times a day offer up a walking route designed to fit within a user's downtime in order to provide the user some exercise. Weather would be factored in, and indoor mapping, an Apple initiative, could be brought to bear for times when the weather would not permit an outdoor walk. It could be as simple as reminding a user that he/she has ten minutes free and might consider taking a walk, to designing on the fly a walking route for the user, and providing turn by turn directions on the watch.
Future versions might have enough information, for those who work on campuses or attend classes on a campus, to offer up walking routes that add distance between two points on the campus, so that, for example, a student with a class in 20 minutes that's just two buildings away is offered a longer, roundabout walking route that'll give her more exercise while getting her to her next class on time.
Ridiculous comment. This isn't just about what to do to stay healthy. It's about treatment and support for people who have suffered an injury or illness. For example, performing simple range of motion exercises, having your Watch track your movements, and then sending data back to your doctor so they can track your progress without you having to leave your home.
Harmon shareholders have apparently launched a lawsuit to block the Samsung purchase.
On the other hand, most of the diseases in the United States are caused by lifestyle. A good summary of my opinion is, "Why is more research going to help, when we know the answer to most disease, and people don't do it?" I think the Apple watch can help keep people doing the correct thing by encouraging activity, but I truly doubt that it's going to advance research much. The only finding I'd expect is that more activity produces better results (up to an extreme limit), and we pretty much know that.
case in point -- stand alerts. i know i should stand part of every hour but left to my own devices often don't. smart alerts fix that. etc. get creative.
Sample size is generally not an issue in most correlational studies, and the requirement to wear a fitness tracker would likely reduce rather than increase sample size. Of course, you'd definitely get a much better indication of activity level if the participants were wearing fitness trackers. However, what do you think the conclusions of the study will be? I can pretty much guarantee than higher activity levels will correlate with better results in whatever you're measuring. What are you going to do with that information?