Wearables as a Tool to Help Doctors Assess Effects of Stroke

What biomedical issue did you address in your research and what did your studies find?

My Ph.D. research aimed to address the rise of stroke in young and middle-aged adults, as I developed a new patient-monitoring strategy to reduce the impact of disability and monitor patients after an event. Few opportunities exist for physicians to continue long-term monitoring of patients released from the hospital following a stroke or stroke-like event and to determine whether the patients might be at risk for another adverse incident. I investigated the use of smartphone digital sensors to capture clinically meaningful measures of mood — like irritability, depression, or trouble sleeping — that can be relevant to cerebrovascular disease (CeVD), including stroke. Importantly, I worked on ways to take the sensor technology from the lab to real-world settings so that neurologists may have another monitoring tool for patients living their daily lives.

Our team outlined categories of available digital sensors and found that wearable sensors can monitor physiologic and behavioral markers that may lead to more accurate diagnoses and understanding of post-stroke disability. Using data from the U.K. Biobank, the largest mood and lifestyle database, I established a scientific rationale for the use of smartphone-based digital sensors before and after a CeVD diagnosis. Our team then developed a pilot study that included patients who presented at Mayo Clinic in Arizona with stroke symptoms. The results of the study described a digital phenotype of mood in CeVD. In addition, we showed that an eight-week multimodal sensor monitoring approach improves the prediction of clinician-administered mood assessment scores with passively acquired data. Our work provides proof-of-concept evidence for a real-world monitoring program that can augment current mood screening processes in resource-strained health systems.

What aspects of your training at Mayo helped you grow as a scientist and as a thinker?

I experienced Mayo's collaborative research environment and took advantage of numerous opportunities to learn and build my expertise. Working with neurologist Bart Demaerschalk, M.D., and the clinical neurology team site at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, I was able to develop a clinical study protocol, recruit patients and find clinically meaningful results in the data. Working with Bradley Erickson, M.D., Ph.D., and his artificial intelligence lab at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, I gained data analysis skills and learned new engineering and technical concepts. In addition, I was able to learn about state policies and clinical protocols impacting remote care delivery across Mayo's clinical sites. Everything I learned is helping to facilitate a translational pathway for digital sensor monitoring in patients with CeVD. My mentors supported my vision, letting me present my work at law, economics and engineering conferences in addition to biomedical science meetings.

What's next?

I have joined Mayo Clinic's Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Healthcare Delivery as a research associate helping teams design, conduct and analyze real-world studies with digital sensors. In addition, I will be advising on cerebrovascular science and remote monitoring as an inaugural member of the American Heart Association Board of Directors Emerging Leaders Council. I'm excited to solve bigger problems and serve the American people as a scientist and engineer.