University Hospital Basel
Department of Neurology

Author Of 1 Presentation

Biosensors Poster Presentation

P0069 - dreams: developing a comprehensive, sensitive and validated set of digital biomarkers for MS (ID 1323)

Speakers
Presentation Number
P0069
Presentation Topic
Biosensors

Abstract

Background

Smartphones and watches and their inbuilt sensors allow for the collection of a near to infinite amount of data about their owners. Taking advantage of these capabilities to improve disease characterisation and monitoring and to support treatment decisions in MS seems obvious but faces a number of challenges: Selection and validation of a comprehensive and meaningful set of tests, managing the immense amount of data and identifying the useful information, data privacy and ascertainment of long-term adherence.

Objectives

To assess systematically the feasibility of a comprehensive smartphone and smartwatch based set of digital biomarkers for disease monitoring in patients with MS (PwMS) and validate this tool against currently available state of the art clinical, imaging and body fluid assessments.

Methods

The dreams App is a software application including multiple biomarkers for each of the domains movement, dexterity, cognition and vision as well as questionnaires for fatigue and other patient reported outcomes. Compliance is enhanced through a gamification-approach. We are currently conducting a feasibility study with a group of PwMS and matched healthy controls to further evaluate the technical reliability of a larger set of digital biomarkers and select those best suited for the validation studies. Early next year, the first of two independent validation studies including 400 PwMS, recruited from participants in the Swiss MS cohort (SMSC) is planned to further validate the digital biomarkers through correlation with established standardized clinical, imaging and body fluid markers already implemented in the SMSC.

Results

Preliminary in-house reliability testing with healthy controls showed intra class correlation coefficients of >60% for the digital biomarkers included in the feasibility study and >80% for at least one in every domain. These results were derived through unguided repetitions over multi-day-timeframes and not optimal laboratory conditions in order to truthfully reflect future use.

Conclusions

With this program, we aim at establishing dreams as a novel smartphone-based comprehensive, modular, validated, independent and broadly accepted digital assessment tool for PwMS. Integrated into a data management and precision medicine based decision support system this assessment tool would improve every day management and allow for better assessment of new therapies in the setting of clinical trials.

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