Empowering Advanced Alzheimers Disease and Dementia Research Through Remote Patient Monitoring and Cloud-Connected Wearable Devices

Project Summary Last year, the care and treatment of roughly 6 million people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias cost the U.S. approximately $593 billion dollars. The tremendous costs associated with Alzheimer's disease include direct medical costs, such as doctor visits, hospital stays, and prescription drugs, as well as indirect costs such as lost wages and productivity for both the affected individuals and their caregivers. According to the Alzheimer's Association, the total cost of care for the estimated 13 million individuals with Alzheimer's and other dementias in the United States by 2050 is projected to reach $1.1 trillion. Emerging lifestyle intervention research is testing whether changes in physical exercise, sleep, socialization, and sedentary behaviors have an impact on disease onset and progression of symptoms throughout the lifespan. Unfortunately, obtaining real- world patient-generated health and behavior information to support this research from aging populations is challenging and often relies on unreliable self-reporting. After years of meetings with 70+ investigators and scientists at the NIH, the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers, numerous universities, and the Alzheimer's Association we determined and agreed that a consolidated database of real-life, digital health information does not exist for Alzheimer's and dementia research. During Amissa's SBIR Phase I, we created software to measure and collect physiological health data passively and unobtrusively from non-stigmatizing smartwatches including the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy watch. This SBIR Phase II project is critical to expanding that R&D and improving remote health measurements, collecting and sharing rich digital health datasets, and identifying potential digital biomarkers that correlate to disease detection, progression, and prevention. Our two software innovations will enable scientific researchers across the world to utilize consumer-grade smartwatches as passive remote patient monitoring solutions. Researchers, labs, universities, and healthcare practitioners will be able to create accounts on our platform, enroll her/his volunteer subjects/patients for a study, and use our free software to collect longitudinal information including health vitals and behavior data. Specific Aim 1: Develop A Research Platform and Real-World Health Data Marketplace To Support Academic Research and Enterprise Partnerships. During Phase II R&D, Amissa Health will collaborate with experts from Wake Forest University, Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Atrium/Advocate Health, Edge Analytics, and Microsoft to develop the first shared research platform that will apply longitudinal, real-world, wearable sensor measurements to advance research of dementia-related digital biomarkers and behavioral interventions. Specific Aim 2: Working with Edge Analytics, a healthcare-focused data science firm that develops prototypes to production-ready algorithms, we will fine- tune edge computing algorithms and smartwatch sensor data collection and compression techniques to maximize real-time health data measurement and collection areas with poor cellular and/or Wi-Fi networks.