Workshop on Digital Clinical Trials: Brainstorming the Future for How Digital Health Technologies Can Impact Health and Wellness

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal supports a Digital Clinical Trials workshop on April 1-2, 2019, co-organized the program officers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The workshop is focused on bringing together leaders in computing and engineering with biomedical leaders to create a roadmap for the future of digital health technologies in the context of clinical trials. The workshop is needed to evaluate the state of the science of digital technologies and research gap areas related to clinical trials. Expectations of digital technology in trials should benefit the country by: 1) Increasing efficiency by streamlining the conduct of trials; 2) Increase access to research participants in trials; 3) Decrease the cost of conducting trials; 4) Increase the quality of research data; and 5) Increase personalized, adaptive trials. These areas of focus not only can have transformative impact on clinical trials and thus the ability to transition new treatments and / or interventions into medical practice, but also are rich with exciting computing and engineering challenges. The proposed workshop will bring together experts from the computing and engineering fields with those from the biomedical clinical trials world to find common work, a common language, and a research roadmap to enable effective collaboration towards a better future for digital clinical trials. Cutting edge digital health technology that will be most useful ultimately needs a joint plan developed by these communities, who normally do not talk together nor attend similar conferences nor read the same academic literature. These areas of focus not only can have transformative impact on clinical trials and thus the ability to transition new treatments and / or interventions into medical practice, but also are rich with exciting computing and engineering challenges. For example, the concept of personalization or adaptation of trials based on sensor-feedback would require novel sensing systems and control algorithms, and a better understanding of the underlying physiological / biological systems involved in the disease process. Thus, this workshop will bring together those who are building new methods and tools with those who will use them to create a research plan for the future of these diverse research groups. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.