Biostatistics Journal Club: Smartphone Based Digital Phenotyping

Social, behavioral, and cognitive phenotypes have traditionally presented difficulties for the health sciences both in research and clinical settings. The standard approach has been to rely on self-administered surveys and clinician-administered tests, both of which tend to be subjective. Due to the burden these assessments impose on participants, this approach is usually only applicable cross-sectionally, which limits its utility, especially in areas that are characterized by episodic changes in behavior. Digital phenotyping attempts to harness continuously collected raw data from personal digital devices, especially smartphones, to address this problem. Jukka-Pekka Onnela, PhD, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will discuss some opportunities and challenges in this line of research, including the importance of working with raw data and developing new statistical methods.

Speaker:

Jukka-Pekka Onnela, PhD, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health