EMBRaCE Study Aims to Combine Wearables and Machine Learning to Improve Cancer Outcomes
Using commercial off-the-shelf hardware, the study aims to find out whether continuous patient monitoring can lead to improved outcomes.
A joint academic and industry team has announced an impending trial of wearable technology and machine learning, which, they hope, will help improve outcomes for cancer patients: EMBRaCE, or Enhanced Monitoring for Better Recovery and Cancer Experience.
A collaboration between the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, The University of Manchester, Aptus Clinical, and Zenzium, the trial — which is to take place in England's Greater Manchester area — will combine data from commercial off-the-shelf wearable devices used by patients with blood, lung, and colorectal cancers with a machine learning system seeking "fingerprints."
"Cancer places a huge burden on the lives of people everywhere. This study uses cutting-edge technology that can monitor people during their treatment, with devices that they can wear all the time," explains Dr. Anthony Wilson, clinical lead for the project. "We hope that it will provide new insights into how people cope with cancer treatment and what we can do to improve their recovery."
"This trial will assess if the latest wearable technology has a role in cancer care," adds Dr. Michael Merchant. "It will help us to identify ways that clinical staff can individualize treatment before, during, and after therapy. We will find out if 24/7 data from these wearable sensors can be used to support patient recovery and provide accurate measurement outside clinic."
The trial will investigate three off-the-shelf wearables: The Oura Health smart ring, worn on the finger; the Withings ScanWatch, worn on the wrist; and the Isanys patient monitoring system, which is worn on the chest. Data from all devices will be fed through a machine learning system developed by Zenzium, including its DeepHRV and VitalPREDICT platforms.
"We firmly believe the future of healthcare will be driven by continuous rather than episodic measurements to improve patient outcomes on an individual basis," says Zenzium's managing director Anthony D. Bashall. "We are excited to be part of this ground-breaking collaboration with some of the best entities in the field, which gives us the opportunity to bring our technology, knowledge and expertise in wearable devices enabled by AI to potentially make a real difference in the lives of patients."
More details on the study are available from the US National Library of medicine's clinical trials database.