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The app was featured with a respiratory health study to help fight COVID-19.
Google has launched a new application that allows people to participate in medical research using only their smartphones.
The objective is to facilitate the participation of the general public in science. By gathering basic information from thousands of ordinary people, doctors and researchers can gain important information about their health and spot any worrisome trends.
Researchers have often had trouble attracting volunteers for large studies, and Google hopes to streamline the recruitment process by connecting research institutions directly with potential volunteers. Google also aims to contribute to studies that could help with COVID-19.
Google Health Studies, available for free on Android phones, displays a list of available studies and the criteria for participation. To enroll in a study, participants can go through a secure electronic consent process, provide basic demographic information, and answer survey questions to begin inputting data. The platform allows researchers to access data from a large and diverse population in real time, creating a more representative picture of the current health landscape.
Because the app deals with sensitive data, Google said it goes the extra mile to ensure the data is secure. All participant data is encrypted and anonymized and, in certain circumstances, participant data may be passed on to researchers as an aggregate to further protect participants’ privacy.
In the midst of the pandemic, the app launches with a respiratory health study in collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The study aims to help scientists, physicians, public health experts, and the general population better understand the dynamics of the spread of respiratory viruses.
Dr. John Brownstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of innovation at Boston Children’s Hospital, and one of the principal investigators involved in the study, said that it had previously been “very difficult to obtain detailed information on the transmission of infections at a high level – configuration of risk: how the configuration in which you work or play contributes to the disease. “
Brownstein, a contributor to ABC News, said he hopes the new app can change that.
“You can collect passive and self-reported data and gain deep insights into what drives respiratory disease in the community,” which can provide “quick insights into generalizability,” he added.
Acquiring much more data and much faster also enables faster health-related policy decision making. In addition to contributing to COVID-19 research, including the impact of vaccines, the data could soon be used to analyze the separate and cumulative effects of influenza as the flu season approaches.
Individuals participating in the respiratory health study can contribute data by completing weekly in-app surveys (self-report symptoms, mask wearing practices and social distancing, COVID-19 or flu test results) and allowing the application collect mobility data. – Did that individual leave his home, for example?
Data contributors can also benefit directly, Brownstein added, as app users will be able to view contributed data, summary statistics from their communities, and any notable results from the study.
The respiratory health study had about 1,000 users as of Tuesday, with the goal of about 100,000 eventually joining. The project is expected to take between six months and a year, with an initial analysis of the results expected in early 2021.
Anita Verma, MD, a New York City resident of psychiatry, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
