Article

Apps Help Patients Participate in Clinical Trials

Smartphone data is now being used for crowdsourcing studies of diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease.

Steven DeMello, like many people, uses a smartphone to keep a calendar, take notes, create artful photographs and listen to music.

Recently, he began using it for a new purpose: to participate in a clinical trial. Three times a day, the retired health-care executive, who is 60 years old and has Parkinson’s disease, performs four tests using an app on his iPhone that records his results and provides feedback to researchers—and to him—on how his Parkinson’s symptoms affect his daily life. “If I know more about my condition, the better and smarter I will be in managing my own care,” he says.

The app, called mPower, is one of five disease-related apps for clinical trials released in March in connection with Apple Inc.’s introduction of ResearchKit, a platform where users can track personal health data and participate in health studies. Other apps include My Heart Counts for cardiovascular disease, Asthma Health, GlucoSuccess for diabetes, and Share the Journey, for a study of the after-effects of treatment for breast cancer.

Link to the article on The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1NzftCj

Related Videos
dr linda bosserman
Benjamin Scirica, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of quality initiatives at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Cardiovascular Division
dr andrew leitner
Glenn Balasky during a video interview
dr joseph alvarnas
dr joseph alvarnas
dr jennifer green
dr jennifer green
Related Content
AJMC Managed Markets Network Logo
CH LogoCenter for Biosimilars Logo