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Recent Academic Research on Clinically Relevant Digital Measures: Systematic Review.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Shandhi, MMH; Goldsack, JC; Ryan, K; Bennion, A; Kotla, AV; Feng, A; Jiang, Y; Wang, WK; Hurst, T; Patena, J; Carini, S; Chung, J; Dunn, J
Published in: Journal of medical Internet research
September 2021

Digital clinical measures collected via various digital sensing technologies such as smartphones, smartwatches, wearables, ingestibles, and implantables are increasingly used by individuals and clinicians to capture health outcomes or behavioral and physiological characteristics of individuals. Although academia is taking an active role in evaluating digital sensing products, academic contributions to advancing the safe, effective, ethical, and equitable use of digital clinical measures are poorly characterized.We performed a systematic review to characterize the nature of academic research on digital clinical measures and to compare and contrast the types of sensors used and the sources of funding support for specific subareas of this research.We conducted a PubMed search using a range of search terms to retrieve peer-reviewed articles reporting US-led academic research on digital clinical measures between January 2019 and February 2021. We screened each publication against specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. We then identified and categorized research studies based on the types of academic research, sensors used, and funding sources. Finally, we compared and contrasted the funding support for these specific subareas of research and sensor types.The search retrieved 4240 articles of interest. Following the screening, 295 articles remained for data extraction and categorization. The top five research subareas included operations research (research analysis; n=225, 76%), analytical validation (n=173, 59%), usability and utility (data visualization; n=123, 42%), verification (n=93, 32%), and clinical validation (n=83, 28%). The three most underrepresented areas of research into digital clinical measures were ethics (n=0, 0%), security (n=1, 0.5%), and data rights and governance (n=1, 0.5%). Movement and activity trackers were the most commonly studied sensor type, and physiological (mechanical) sensors were the least frequently studied. We found that government agencies are providing the most funding for research on digital clinical measures (n=192, 65%), followed by independent foundations (n=109, 37%) and industries (n=56, 19%), with the remaining 12% (n=36) of these studies completely unfunded.Specific subareas of academic research related to digital clinical measures are not keeping pace with the rapid expansion and adoption of digital sensing products. An integrated and coordinated effort is required across academia, academic partners, and academic funders to establish the field of digital clinical measures as an evidence-based field worthy of our trust.

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Published In

Journal of medical Internet research

DOI

EISSN

1438-8871

ISSN

1439-4456

Publication Date

September 2021

Volume

23

Issue

9

Start / End Page

e29875

Related Subject Headings

  • Smartphone
  • Medical Informatics
  • Humans
  • Delivery of Health Care
  • 4203 Health services and systems
  • 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
  • 08 Information and Computing Sciences
 

Citation

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Shandhi, M. M. H., Goldsack, J. C., Ryan, K., Bennion, A., Kotla, A. V., Feng, A., … Dunn, J. (2021). Recent Academic Research on Clinically Relevant Digital Measures: Systematic Review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(9), e29875. https://doi.org/10.2196/29875
Shandhi, Md Mobashir Hasan, Jennifer C. Goldsack, Kyle Ryan, Alexandra Bennion, Aditya V. Kotla, Alina Feng, Yihang Jiang, et al. “Recent Academic Research on Clinically Relevant Digital Measures: Systematic Review.Journal of Medical Internet Research 23, no. 9 (September 2021): e29875. https://doi.org/10.2196/29875.
Shandhi MMH, Goldsack JC, Ryan K, Bennion A, Kotla AV, Feng A, et al. Recent Academic Research on Clinically Relevant Digital Measures: Systematic Review. Journal of medical Internet research. 2021 Sep;23(9):e29875.
Shandhi, Md Mobashir Hasan, et al. “Recent Academic Research on Clinically Relevant Digital Measures: Systematic Review.Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 23, no. 9, Sept. 2021, p. e29875. Epmc, doi:10.2196/29875.
Shandhi MMH, Goldsack JC, Ryan K, Bennion A, Kotla AV, Feng A, Jiang Y, Wang WK, Hurst T, Patena J, Carini S, Chung J, Dunn J. Recent Academic Research on Clinically Relevant Digital Measures: Systematic Review. Journal of medical Internet research. 2021 Sep;23(9):e29875.

Published In

Journal of medical Internet research

DOI

EISSN

1438-8871

ISSN

1439-4456

Publication Date

September 2021

Volume

23

Issue

9

Start / End Page

e29875

Related Subject Headings

  • Smartphone
  • Medical Informatics
  • Humans
  • Delivery of Health Care
  • 4203 Health services and systems
  • 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
  • 08 Information and Computing Sciences