Mobile App for Physical Function Measurement Bill Wood, MD, MPH Hematology/Oncology

What is Physical Function (PF) and Why is it Important? PF: Physical abilities (e.g. walking, reaching, mobility) that are critical to maintaining independence PF strongly associated with survival, hospitalizations, symptoms, quality of life in cancer Think of a PF score as a measure of overall health

How can Physical Function be Measured? Capacity: what someone can do (walk test, sensor heart rate data) Behavior: what someone does (sensor activity data) Report: what someone experiences (self-reported function) Capacity Report Behavior

Ideal PF Measure(s) Data from each type of source (capacity, behavior, report) An aggregated / composite score – one number that reflects overall health (a) Collect the data and (b) Display the score over time in a mobile app for maximum scalability and usefulness

Why Do We Need a PF Score? Patients: How is my health and how is it affected by my disease or treatment? How can I improve? Doctors: How is my patient doing? Do I need to call and check in? What treatment intensity should I prescribe, based on my patient’s health? Industry: Who should enroll on my trial? How can I monitor for adverse events and identify patients who need help? Hospitals and Health Insurers: How can I monitor the health of my population?

Why Can’t We Just Use a Fitbit or an Apple Watch? Physical Activity (e.g. steps per day, intensity) is related to Physical Function but not the same Most wearable sensors are not built for health care environments We need more functionality than commercial devices currently provide

Our Request Help us prototype a mobile app that collects PF data (capacity, behavior, report) and displays a PF score over time The app should be able to integrate with a wearable sensor in order to inform the PF score (and display physical activity data in addition to the PF score) The app should also collect participant contextual data (e.g. baseline characteristics, symptoms) Eventually, the app could integrate with an electronic health record The app should be intuitive and appealing to patients and clinicians alike

Our Team We have assembled a group of individuals who are very interested in this topic, from different places UNC, Duke, community And from different backgrounds Doctors, patients, researchers, tech enthusiasts, others This topic is a high priority for our group

Are You Interested? Please contact Bill Wood (wawood@med.unc.edu) and read the attached handout for additional information We want to work with you!