The NSF, NIH, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and McKesson Foundation announced this week a call for white papers on innovative methods to accelerate the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of mobile health technologies — in anticipation of a workshop later this year that will serve as the basis for defining a research agenda for evaluation of mHealth technology:
Mobile health (mHealth) has the potential to simultaneously reduce the cost of health care and improve our health by encouraging healthy behaviors, providing continuous monitoring to prevent or reduce health problems, reducing acute health care visits, and providing personalized, real-time intervention in the mobile environment. However, traditional methods of evaluation needed to address efficacy and safety in mHealth are not well aligned to the pace of technological development. The mHealth Evidence Meeting will bring together individuals with diverse expertise in data analysis and experimental design to identify innovative methods that can accelerate the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of mHealth technologies. Results from the workshop will be used to define the research agenda for evaluation of mobile health technology.
We solicit white papers on alternative test designs to the traditional Randomized Control Trial that could be applied to mHealth intervention research or on techniques for analyzing the rich longitudinal data sets that can be obtained from mHealth technologies. Each white paper should describe: (i) the applicant’s expertise and experience in developing or using alternative research designs to the traditional Randomized Control Trial that could be applied to mHealth intervention research or in analyses of rich longitudinal data sets that could be applied to analyzing the data obtained from mHealth technologies (in 250 words or less); (ii) the applicant’s background and expertise in research and design methodology, analytics and/or mobile health technology (in 150 words or less); and, (iii) the applicant’s vision for developing mHealth methodologies to more efficiently generate empirical evidence (efficacy, effectiveness, safety, etc.) and provide a rationale for how this vision will lead to major advances in mHealth evidence (in 500 words or less)… The white papers must be submitted online by first registering and then completing the application here.
Acceptance will be based on several factors, including the quality and innovativeness of the whitepaper and the ability to form a diverse program in terms of topics and participants. Participation in the workshop is by invitation only. Invitations will be extended based upon review of the whitepapers. Travel expenses for selected attendees (up to $1,200) will be paid by the University of Memphis through a grant by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and McKesson Foundation.
White papers are due by May 27th. Click here for more details.
(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)
