Digital Health and Health Disparities Lab

National Institute On Minority Health And Health Disparities

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

We have published 9 manuscripts and have 7 manuscripts under review, three of which have been revised and resubmitted. Additionally, we had 15 abstracts and panels accepted for presentation at scientific conferences. One abstract received a meritorious award from the 18th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine. Finally, we closed protocol NCT05189418 and are currently analyzing the data and we registered another trial (NCT07067151) that will be open for participant recruitment later this year. As an example of the research that we have published, we surveyed 5444 US adults to identify characteristics associated with telehealth, telemedicine, and telemonitoring. These are digital healthcare services that allow for the provision of healthcare, consultations and clinical services, and the continuous monitoring of patients outside healthcare settings. We observed increased self-reported use of telehealth at 50.5%, telemedicine at 29.5%, and telemonitoring at 15.6%. Use of these services differed by education, race and/or ethnicity, and English proficiency, among other characteristics, although some of these associations differed by where people live. These results are promising because these digital services can close gaps in healthcare access. We also found that the use of mobile applications and wearable sensors were acceptable for smoking cessation programs. This conclusion came from focus group discussions with 38 non-college educated people who smoke. Finally, we designed a study that aims to identify signature biomarkers derived from consumer grade wearable devices (such as heart rate, respiration rate) associated with smoking episodes and their preceding and subsequent states. We will use this information to identify when people are at risk of smoking to provide real-time smoking cessation support through our smoking cessation mobile intervention.