Case Study

The electronic Framingham Heart Study (eFHS) was designed to leverage commercial wearables and digital medical devices, adding new mobile and digital phenotypes around heart rate, blood pressure, activity levels and sleep hygiene into the robust Framingham Heart Study (FHS). This was to compare new digital measures against the other gold standard CVD phenotypes already obtained in the FHS Research Center. 

To evaluate the scalability and reliability of digital and mobile health research, David McManus, JoAnne Murbito, Emelia Benjamin and the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) team leveraged the MyDataHelps™ designer to build a remote study in which they were able to quickly enroll and complete eConsent for 2,139 participants from existing FHS cohorts. The participants downloaded MyDataHelps™ and had high rates of completion for the baseline survey (89% completed all baseline surveys) and the 3-month survey (58%) with little reinforcement needed. Compared to similar e-cohorts, the eFHS survey completion rates were higher than prior studies, including the eCARDIA (52%) and the Health eHeart 37% studies.

Through the MyDataHelps™ app, the FHS team was also able to gather weekly blood pressure (BP) measurements via a bluetooth BP cuff and daily heart rate (HR) measurements via Apple Watches, which synced to the app.