REMOTE HEALTH
BIOS Health is a technology company dedicated to improving the lives of people living with chronic health conditions. Core to this mission is developing a better understanding of how chronic diseases present and progress in order to accelerate the development of new therapies and optimize current treatments. To improve our understanding of chronic diseases, BIOS Health has developed a Remote Health Platform to gather large amounts of patient data from wearable devices and to transform that data into the outcome measures commonly used by researchers and clinicians. For researchers, this platform can lower the cost of clinical trials and accelerate the pace of discovery. For clinicians, it can provide a valuable window into a patient’s condition between office visits. And for patients, it can help one to take back control of one’s health.
The BIOS Remote Health platform consist of three interconnected products.
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BIOS Health: Clinical Studies (available for Android and iOS) enables a person to sign up and participate in clinical studies. The app allows people to record their symptoms, assess their quality of life, and enter in key health metrics, which can be used to assess the severity of their condition and whether their current treatment is effective.
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BIOS Health: Tracker (available for Apple Watch) calculates a wide variety of health metrics using the data a user generates on their Apple Watch throughout the day, including heart rate, activity levels, and metabolic activity. Users can also use the app to initiate a 6 Minute Walk Test, a commonly used metric to assess a person’s overall fitness. New features are constantly being added to give the user and their healthcare team a more complete view of their health.
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BIOS Health: Reports is a web-based reporting portal for viewing data collected by Tracker and Clinical Studies. Clinicians and researchers can view charts of performance outcome measures and patient reported outcome measures, or they can export all study data to CSV for offline analysis.
All applications on the BIOS Remote Health Platform are currently only to be used for research purposes. In the near future, the platform will be made available for clinical use.
BIOS Health: Clinical Studies - App overview
The Clinical Studies app allows patients to view and enrol in clinical studies. For restricted studies, users may request a registration token from the study coordinator. Once enrolled in a study, the user can view and complete surveys. The surveys are self-contained and can be resumed at any point. Researchers may request that users repeat surveys on a set cadence (daily, weekly, monthly). Participants can track their progress towards completing a given study by viewing the reporting metrics in the application.
Key information:
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Secure storage of user data using LabKey Server.
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Used for patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and other custom surveys.
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Survey data can be linked to other health data using unique identifiers without transferring the user's name or email address.
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Built on the FDA MyStudies app open software platform.
Versions:
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The current version of the app enables users to participate in key studies about COVID-19 and chronic conditions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The next version will allow users to track the health metrics they submit during study participation to provide users with a better sense of their health over time.
BIOS Health: Tracker - App overview
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BIOS Health: Tracker is an Apple Watch app that collects a wide array of health data for use in clinical studies, including heart rate, mobility data, and GPS. The GPS data used by tracker is limited in two important ways. First, BIOS only records the distances between different GPS readings, not the locations themselves. This allows us to measure how far a person walks while protecting a person’s privacy. Second, we only collect GPS data during the window when a person indicates they are going to perform a walk test. One’s Tracker app can be linked to one’s Clinical Studies account using a passcode provided by BIOS. Currently, BIOS provides all participants with an Apple Watch for the duration of the study.
Key information:
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Secure storage of user data.
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Data collected throughout the day is used to estimate commonly used fitness assessments like the 6 Minute Walk Test.
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While the app operates in the background, one can use the Apple Watch as usual.
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Built to link with the BIOS Health: Clinical Studies app to collect a more complete picture of a person’s health.
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Versions:
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The current version of the app enables users to participate in key studies about COVID-19 and chronic conditions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In future versions, users will be able to view their own health data in a companion phone app, likely a part of BIOS Health: Clinical Studies.
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New features will be incorporated as they are made available on the Apple Watch. When BIOS’s algorithms improve, previously collected data can be reanalysed to provide more accurate assessments of a user’s health.
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