Articles and Insights About Wearables for Clinical Trials

Articles by Patrick Hankey, PhD

Patrick Hankey, PhD

Patrick Hankey, PhD has a doctorate in cell biology from The Queen's University, Belfast. He is a former research scientist at the University of California, San Diego.

Recent Articles


Consumer-Grade Activity Trackers Place in Clinical Research

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Wearable sensor devices are an essential element for data collection. As their use is rapidly growing, so is the debate whether consumer or medical-grade wearable sensors are fit for purpose in clinical trials.

Read More

Monitoring the Health of First Responders with Wearable Sensors

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Recently I had a Q&A session with Alex (Sandy) MacQuarrie, Ph.D., to gain insight into his work with the Hexoskin™ Smart Garment and how it’s used in his research. Hexoskin™ and Astroskin are garment-based platforms that combine ECG, respiratory, pulse oximetry, temperature, and accelerometry sensors.

Read More

How Digital Data Impacts the Development of New Treatments

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Digitally connected devices are transforming the way we treat and manage health conditions. They also introduce and improve participant access, engagement, and outcome measurements in clinical trials. Here’s a look at how digital data is paving the way for advances in treatments and recovery.

Read More

Overcoming the Barriers to Adopting Digital Clinical Measures

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Advances in AI, digital technology, and wearable devices have played a vital role in accommodating the social distancing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging digital clinical measures enable clinicians and researchers to maintain continued support for patients and healthcare systems. However, organizational barriers often slow the advancement of the adoption of digital clinical measures. Here are some ways experts can help you overcome the obstacles.

Read More

How Experts Can Help Your Organization Adopt Digital Biomarkers

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

As demand for preventive and precision healthcare evolves, the need for a new class of broadly applicable, precise, and accurate biomarkers exists. This approach gives clinicians and researchers the ability to monitor patients in the real world and discover the most effective treatment strategies. Regardless of your stage of adoption, digital biomarker experts can help.

Read More

Understanding Wearable Sensor Types and Wear Location

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

When deploying wearable sensors in clinical trials, it is essential to understand how they should be positioned on the body. The objective is to maximize the quality of the signal while minimizing the burden on patients and maintaining their comfort. Sensor wear position also impacts the accuracy and precision of digital clinical outcome measures. Here's an overview of some common wearable sensors types and wear locations.

Read More

An Alternative to the 6MWT in Virtual Clinical Trials

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Digital innovation in clinical trial research has been accelerated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wherever possible, in-clinical assessments are being replaced with measures taken outside the study site. Decentralized trials present a new challenge to accurately capture data in real-world settings, such as the home or workplace. Here we illustrate how an outcome measure from a wearable sensor can be used as an alternative to the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT).

Read More

Commonly Used Wearable Sensors in Clinical Trials

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Wearable sensors provide sophisticated insights into patients’ real-world behavior and functioning in clinical trials and healthcare settings. Drug development researchers, regulators, payors, and patients want to see meaningful, valid insights enabled by them. In this guide, we break down the following commonly used wearable sensors: including what they do, their benefits, and other important considerations for incorporating them into your clinical trial:

Read More

Getting Started Using Wearable Sensors for Clinical Research

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

Wearable sensors and digital technology offer great potential in understanding the patient experience in clinical trials. The collection of rich data, captured in real-world settings, provides deep insights into our understanding of medical treatment effects. With so many factors to consider, however, it is no simple task to make this choice. Here are some key considerations for getting started using wearable sensor data collection for clinical research.

Read More

Developing Digital Biomarkers in Clinical Trials and Healthcare Delivery

 Patrick Hankey, PhD

The practice of medicine and medical research is undergoing a rapid digital revolution transforming healthcare into a science of data analytics. The term Digital Health has entered the lexicon as we increasingly understand and describe medicine in terms of data generated by wearable physiological sensors, genetic sequencing and medical imaging. Rock Health, a venture fund dedicated to the founding and growth of Digital Health companies, recently published a report on the data driven transformation of healthcare, in particular highlighting the urgent need to develop digital biomarkers. Digital biomarkers are the medical signal or signatures contained in the vast data sets generated by the ever increasing use of leading edge medical technologies.

Read More
 Newer All Articles Older 

Stay Connected

Popular