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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Are You Interested?
Please contact Bill Wood and read the attached handout for additional information
We want to work with you!