Articles and Insights About Wearables for Clinical Trials

Jen Blankenship, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, moderated a lively discussion with Shelby Bachman, PhD, Research Scientist, and an expert panel about the promise of Digital health technologies (DHTs) like smartphones and wearable sensors to advancing drug development and discovery in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease.

At the a2 National Symposium: Empowering Innovation in AI/Tech + Aging, Senior Research Scientist Jen Blankenship, PhD, presented our ongoing work with the Center for Human Health and Performance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to develop digital clinical measures that capture how patients with Alzheimer’s disease function in their real-world environments. 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that progresses to impact every dimension of a patient’s life. With no cure and limited options to manage symptoms, research is underway to develop drugs that impact the most burdensome aspects of AD: memory problems and the ability to function independently.

Physical function and mobility are relevant to virtually all clinical indications and are significant determinants of an individual’s quality of life. Because of this, function and mobility are often assessed in clinical trials using subjective questionnaires or in-clinic performance tests, but these assessments may not reflect a patient’s lived experience. Wearable sensors provide an opportunity to move assessments of function into the real world to measure how patients feel and function in their everyday environments.

Millions of people across the globe struggle with neurodegenerative diseases every day. Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by a breakdown of the central and peripheral nervous systems and cause progressive deterioration of a normally functioning human body. However, a significant challenge in studying neurodegenerative diseases is that direct measurements of neurological systems are invasive and expensive.

Wearable sensors can be used to understand disease progression and manifestation by measuring physical symptoms and physiological outcomes.