Digital Technology Core

Oregon Health & Science University, Portland OR

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Project Summary: Digital Technology Core It is recognized that key aspects of life experience and clinical change are not readily captured in research using conventional clinical assessments that rely on self-report or episodic in-person exams. The desire to capture this real-world data has been emphasized in the NIA and NACC developmental roadmap to integrate digitally acquired measures (“digital biomarkers”) into the rich data currently included in the ADRCs databases. The Oregon ADRC (OADRC) recognized the power of these emerging technologies, built on a decades-long development of a digital platform through the Oregon Center for Aging & Technology (ORCATECH, established 2004), its Roybal sister center (ORCASTRAIT), and leveraged the NIH-VA Collaborative Aging Research using Technology (CART) initiative to, in 2019, establish the first Digital Technology Core (DTC) within an ADRC to bring this new real-world data to the ADRC research community. To achieve the goal of providing objective, real-world data, the DTC has established a readily deployable, home-based, unobtrusive, and sharable system for capturing the desired continuous measurements of key features through digital assessments of function (DAF), generating what are often called “digital biomarkers” known to change with progression of ADRD. These include read-outs in known physiological drivers of ADRD such as sleep/activity and BMI, the ability to use common devices (e.g., smartphones and computers, vehicles, pill boxes), in physical function (e.g., gait speed, life-space movements), as well as in social interactions (e.g., out of home activity, texting). Although these are of great interest in the transition from prodromal disease, this capability has also found important application in other areas of dementia assessment beyond early detection such as gaining insight into caregiver activity at home as well as agitation and sundowning behaviors in advanced dementia. The use of these technologies is not limited to assessment, but also can deliver interventions such as in dementia care programs via direct to home video appointments or social engagement through daily video chats among isolated patients with MCI. Data collection is performed remotely on an individual home level as opposed to in a clinic, thus lowering barriers and allowing more participants to engage in research, particularly relevant to our Center’s focus on under-represented groups including the oldest old, Black, and isolated older adults (e.g., those living alone or in rural communities). This proposal will consolidate and build upon recent advances through the OADRC Digital Technology Core (DTC). Specific Aims are: 1. To maintain and make available for research, an OADRC dementia-specific focused Life Laboratory cohort of research volunteers (healthy controls, MCI, and those with AD) who will have deployed in their homes state-of-the-art sensing and pervasive computing platforms. 2. To obtain and make available for research DAF and related data on OADRC participants. 3. To foster collaborative research involving digital assessment, interventions, and related technologies.