At the 25 annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Eli Lilly, Apple and Evidation reported on their Real-World Evidence (RWE) feasibility study, examining the utility of consumer-grade smart devices in identifying people with cognitive impairment. RWE is derived from Real-World Data (RWD), data and information gathered in a real-world setting beyond the confines of traditional clinical trials and interventional medicine. RWD can be obtained from many different sources; for example, the RADAR-AD study on digital biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) uses data from smartphones, wearables and home-based sensors.
In the reported study, researchers aimed to identify whether interpretable RWE could be obtained using data from an iPhone, Apple watch and Beddit sleep monitoring device. In total, 31 participants with MCI or mild AD were enrolled, along with 84 healthy individuals. The smart devices provided data on gross motor function (e.g number of steps, walking speed), heart rate, sleep cycle and fine motor control, among other parameters.
Researchers reported that they had developed a data collection and analysis system which could effectively integrate different data streams from the devices. They identified a pattern of reduced typing speed and fewer text messages in participants with cognitive impairment. However, the researchers cautioned that these are preliminary results based on a very small number of individuals, with further studies required in order to extrapolate these observations to the wider population.
