Activity Tracker Data Going into Clinical Research Cloud

Cloud-based clinical research platform developer Medidata says it has formalized a strategic collaboration with activity tracker vendor Garmin International. The collaboration features integration of data from Garmin's vivofit tracker into the Medidata Clinical Cloud platform.

Designed to be worn on a person’s wrist around the clock, Garmin’s vívofit measures steps taken, distance, calories burned, and hours slept. The water-resistant device, which displays fitness data through its always-on LCD display, is being used by Medidata to capture patient data in clinical trials.

Medidata executives said the company selected the vívofit because of the ease of use provided by its year-long battery life, which can improve the convenience and speed associated with capturing direct-from-patient data and, as such, has the potential to increase compliance among study participants in a clinical trial setting.

Medidata’s cloud-based infrastructure enables life sciences companies to explore the use of mHealth technologies in clinical research. This infrastructure gathers data from devices worn by patients and integrates it with other traditional clinical data, including labs, vital signs, medical history, and adverse events.

In doing so, the infrastructure provides life sciences companies with the ability to conduct sophisticated analysis on trial performance. Medidata is currently working with top life sciences organizations to explore the feasibility of using the vívofit in clinical trials. The data is pulled from the Garmin activity tracker in 15-minute increments and then analyzed to evaluate its connection with traditional clinical measures and determine whether it can provide better insight into patient health status or response to therapy.