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Review
. 2018 Jan 25:1:1.
doi: 10.1038/s41746-017-0008-y. eCollection 2018.

Mobile and pervasive computing technologies and the future of Alzheimer's clinical trials

P Murali Doraiswamy  1 , Vaibhav A Narayan  2 , Husseini K Manji  2
Affiliations
Review

Mobile and pervasive computing technologies and the future of Alzheimer's clinical trials

P Murali Doraiswamy et al. NPJ Digit Med. .

Abstract

The rapid growth of mobile phones, automated speech recognizing personal assistants, and internet access among the elderly provides new opportunities for incorporating such technologies into clinical research and personalized medical care. Alzheimer's disease is a good test case given the need for early detection, the high rate of clinical trial failures, the need to more efficiently recruit patients for trials, and the need for sensitive and ecologically valid trial outcomes.

Keywords: Business and industry; Medical research.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe technologies described in this article were selected to be illustrative of the advances being made. P.M.D. is a minor shareholder and advisor to Anthrotronix and a former advisor and grant recipient from Neuronetrix. He has also received a speaking fee from CEOs Against Alzheimer’s (but has no involvement with their trial platform). He has also received research grants and/or advisory/speaking fees from several pharmaceutical, CRO, and technology companies for other projects, and he owns shares in Maxwell Health, Evidation, Muses Labs, Turtle Shell, and Adverse Events Inc. whose products are not discussed here. He has served as an advisor and received grants from Johnson and Johnson in the past for other projects but not in the past 3 years. V.A.N. and H.K.M. are employees and shareholders of Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) and have no direct financial conflicts of interest to declare as individuals in the technologies or registries mentioned. Janssen as a company is active in the area of Alzheimer’s research and drug development. It has financially supported mobile technologies and tools being developed (mostly by other academics or entities) for Alzheimer’s diagnosis, monitoring, and care-giver support as well as patient registries and platforms, such as BHR and GAP. ReVeRe is being developed by Janssen. Outside of Alzheimer’s, JNJ also supports a range of mobile technologies for other therapeutic areas.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Figure depicts selected mobile or pervasive computing technologies that are being studied for use in AD research with examples in each area. This is not intended to be a comprehensive listing and the degree of validation that each technology has undergone is variable. The examples are intended to merely provide readers an overview of the developments in the field. HRV heart rate variability, ADAS refers to Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale, EDA refers to electrodermal activity, FAQ refers to functional activities questionnaire, VR refers to virtual reality, other abbreviations are listed in the text
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