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Google announced Wednesday that it will launch a new research app for Android phones, which would allow anyone with a device to participate in medical studies. The first study run through the app, called Google Health Studies, will look at respiratory diseases like the flu and COVID-19.
Study participants will use the app to report any respiratory symptoms, the precautions they are taking to prevent illness, and whether they have been tested for COVID-19 or the flu. The app will also collect demographic data, such as age, gender, and race. “The researchers in this study can examine trends to understand the link between mobility (such as the number of daily trips a person makes outside the home) and the spread of COVID-19,” Google wrote in a press release.
The app will send data to researchers using a technique called federated learning, which will group aggregated trends from multiple devices, rather than pulling information from each participant individually.
Health Studies is Google’s answer to Apple’s research app, which runs on iOS devices. Last year, it launched studies on menstrual cycles, mobility, and heart and hearing health. Apple also allows researchers to create their own iPhone applications through its ResearchKit program.
Studies conducted through the app will come with the same caveats as research for other commercial wearable products: They can only enroll people who can buy products like an Android phone. Aggregated data is a good way to protect privacy, but it means that researchers cannot analyze the information in detail.
Android phone users have lower median incomes than iPhone users, which could be a benefit for Google’s health studies. “Android probably represents a more diverse data set [than iPhone]. We’re very excited about taking advantage of that, “said John Brownstein, director of innovation at Boston Children’s Hospital who is working on the study with Google. Statistics News.
