Publication: Returning Individualized Wearable Sensor Results to Older Adult Research Participants: A Pilot Study

Authors: Shelby L Bachman, Krista S Leonard-Corzo, Jennifer M Blankenship, Michael A Busa, Corinna Serviente, Matthew W Limoges, Robert T Marcotte, Ieuan Clay, Kate Lyden Abstract Background: Wearable sensors that monitor physical behaviors are increasingly adopted in clinical research. Older adult research participants have expressed interest in tracking and receiving feedback on their physical behaviors. Simultaneously, researchers and clinical trial sponsors are interested in returning results to participants, but the question of how to return individual study results derived from research-grade wearable sensors remains unanswered. In this study, we (1) assessed the feasibility of returning individual physical behavior results to older adult research participants and (2) obtained participant feedback on the returned results. Methods: Older adult participants (N = 20; ages 67-96) underwent 14 days of remote monitoring with 2 wearable sensors. We then used a semiautomated…

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Publication: Capturing Measures That Matter: The Potential Value of Digital Measures of Physical Behavior for Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Development

Authors: Shelby L. Bachman, Jennifer M. Blankenship, Michael Busa, Corinna Serviente, Kate Lyden, and Ieuan Clay Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease and the primary cause of dementia worldwide. Despite the magnitude of AD's impact on patients, caregivers, and society, nearly all AD clinical trials fail. A potential contributor to this high rate of failure is that established clinical outcome assessments fail to capture subtle clinical changes, entail high burden for patients and their caregivers, and ineffectively address the aspects of health deemed important by patients and their caregivers. AD progression is associated with widespread changes in physical behavior that have impacts on the ability to function independently, which is a meaningful aspect of health for patients with AD and important for diagnosis. However, established assessments of functional independence remain underutilized in…

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