Research Project
10025131
Principal Investigator: Kumar, Santosh mDOT ? Administration Core Abstract: The mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally-Precise Interventions (the mDOT Center) will enable a new paradigm of temporally-precise medicine to maintain health and manage the growing burden of chronic diseases. The mDOT Center will develop and disseminate the methods, tools, and infrastructure necessary for researchers to pursue the discovery, optimization and translation of temporally- precise mHealth interventions. Such interventions, when dynamically personalized to the moment-to-moment biopsychosocial-environmental context of each individual, will precipitate a much-needed transformation in healthcare by enabling patients to initiate and sustain the healthy lifestyle choices necessary for directly managing, treating, and in some cases even preventing the development of medical conditions. Organized around three Technology Research & Development (TR&D) projects, mDOT represents a unique national resource that will develop multiple technological innovations and support their translation into research and practice by the mHealth community in the form of easily deployable wearables, apps for wearables and smartphones, and a companion mHealth cloud system, all open-source. Given that the inherently transdisciplinary, team-based nature of mHealth research requires scientists to cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries, administration and operation of a functional resource center in mHealth technologies requires a collaborative culture, with a team-science approach, that is geographically dispersed yet functional in a virtual setting. mDOT will utilize its established and highly successful infrastructure, adaptive procedural acumen, widely visible dissemination platforms, and deeply-experienced team to develop administrative and operational policies and procedures relevant to the running of a national resource center. The Administration Core will look to not only enhance the research of the collaborative projects (CPs) and service projects (SPs), but also to streamline communication and involvement with new research groups with little or no technological expertise. To achieve its goals, mDOT will pursue the following activities. First, mDOT will leverage an established organizing structure and managerial practice to facilitate coordination, communication, and collaboration among the team, CPs, SPs, and greater research community. Secondly, mDOT will establish operational procedures that allows for successful work with the CPs and SPs ? this includes mechanisms to receive, vet, and approve the use of resources and devising criteria to prioritize the selection of other qualified CP/SP candidates. Third, mDOT will recruit eminent scholars and nationally recognized thought leaders to serve on a diverse external advisory committee (EAC) tasked with providing feedback and guidance on the mDOT research agenda. Fourth, mDOT will secure and leverage institutional support that accommodates and sets up the Center for success in achieving the research goals put forth by the investigating team. Finally, the Administration Core will develop measurable metrics to monitor, assess, and evaluate the quality and utility of mDOT technologies while taking a customer service approach that is adaptive to feedback and responsive to the mHealth research community at large. 1
