ActiGraph Awards Research Grants to Advance Digital Clinical Measures

ActiGraph, a provider of digital health technology (DHT) solutions for clinical trials and academic research, has announced the five recipients of its Digital Endpoint Accelerator Research “DEAR” Grant to validate fit-for-purpose uses of DHTs in clinical populations.

Each of these selected research project will be granted financial support along with wearable DHT devices and software to conduct the research. ActiGraph’s team will also support the study teams with multidisciplinary expertise across engineering, data science, and clinical science.

Physical Activity in Cardiology – Nicole Freene (PhD, FHEA, GCTE)

Dr. Nicole Freene is an Associate Professor in Physiotherapy at the University of Canberra. With the DEAR Grant, Dr. Freene and her research team will identify heart disease-specific accelerometer cut-points that will allow the disease-specific relationship between physical activity and health outcomes to be accurately established.

Assessing Fall-Risk in Older Adults – John Buckley

John Buckley is a Reader in Movement Biomechanics in the Department of Biomedical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Bradford, teaching courses in clinical movement analysis, biomechanics, and rehabilitation engineering. With the DEAR Grant, Buckley and his research team will determine how actigraphy could be used to measure the performance and variability of ankle strength, function, and endurance assessments, which help inform fall risk.

Functional Mobility Assessment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – Cory Holdom

Cory Holdom is a PhD student at the University of Queensland, working in motor neuron disease (MND) research. Actigraphy offers a promising opportunity for reliable, meaningful measures of MND progression. With the DEAR Grant, Holdom and his research team will validate actigraphy-derived measures of gait that can be applied in future MND clinical trials.

Reproducibility and Validity of Sensor-Derived Gait Measures in Multiple Sclerosis – Alon Kalron, PhD, PT

Dr. Alon Kalron is a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University. With the DEAR Grant, Dr. Kalron and his research team will validate spatio-temporal gait output data in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). They will also examine the relationship between ActiGraph spatio-temporal gait data with level of disability, fear and history of falling, and perceived impact of MS on mobility.

Sleep in Down Syndrome – Sarika Peters, PhD

Dr. Sarika Peters is a psychologist and co-director of the Behavioral Phenotyping Core of the Vanderbilt Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center. With the DEAR Grant, Dr. Peters and her research team will develop a specific algorithm for measuring sleep-based outcomes in Down syndrome (DS) and test its analytical and clinical validity against commonly used outcome measures in DS, such as polysomnography.

Christine Guo, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at ActiGraph, said, “We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to our grant call and excited to partner with our research community to bridge this gap. Evidence generated from these studies will accelerate the adoption of wearable data as patient-centered outcomes on physical functioning, functional mobility. and sleep in clinical trials and care.

REFERENCE: ActiGraph Awards Research Grants to Advance Digital Clinical Measures, PENSACOLA, FL, March 1, 2023.