Investigators from the MD2K Center are participating in two events this week focusing on Big Data research in mobile health and development of useful tools for mHealth.
The first, A National Workshop on Computing Challenges in Future Mobile Health (mHealth) Systems and Applications, was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). The meeting was held Oct. 29 at NIH.
The workshop was designed to:
- Identify the challenges in computing that, once solved, will result in major advances in health.
- Identify the major barriers to engaging computing researchers in mHealth
- Establish an academic community of mHealth researchers in computing
Three of the day’s sessions focused on “grand challenges” to mHealth computing: developing of sensors, creating the analytics to interpret the information gathered, and developing the methods of intervention and treatment. Two afternoon sessions examined how to minimize barriers for researchers seeking entry into the mHealth field, and ways to build sustainable academic programs in mHealth.
Among the 45 attendees were thought leaders in both computing and health. The MD2K-affliated participants included Dr. Gregory Abowd (Georgia Tech), Dr. Tyson Condie (UCLA), Dr. Emre Ertin (Ohio State), Dr. Deborah Estrin (Cornell Tech), Dr. Deepak Ganesan (UMass Amherst), Dr. Santosh Kumar (Memphis), Dr. Benjamin Marlin (UMass Amherst), Dr. James Rehg (Georgia Tech) and Dr. Bonnie Spring (Northwestern). Kumar and Spring were also on the organizing committee for the event.
A second event, held at NIH Oct. 29-31, also featured several members of the MD2K team.
Wireless Health 2014, sponsored by the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, was created in 2010 to provide a forum for researchers involved in mHealth. The conference’s goal is to accelerate development and adoption of new technologies for improving health and lowering costs.
Included in the conference schedule were the presentation of peer-reviewed papers and abstracts, interactive workshops, emerging application demonstrations and a series of invited keynote speakers, which included Spring, who gave the closing keynote.
Other MD2K-affiliated participants in Wireless Health 2014 included Dr. Inbal Nahum-Shani (Michigan), Ertin, Fredrick Raab (UC San Diego), Kevin Patrick (UC San Diego) and Kumar.
Members of the Technical Committee for the 2014 conference included Ertin, Tim Hnat (Memphis) and Rehg.