The influence of ambient environmental factors on breakthrough Cancer pain: insights from remote health home monitoring and a proposed data analytic approach.

BACKGROUND: Breakthrough cancer pain (BTCP) is primarily managed at home and can stem from physical exertion and emotional distress triggers. Beyond these triggers, the impact of ambient environment on pain occurrence and intensity has not been investigated. This study explores the impact of environmental factors on the frequency and severity of breakthrough cancer pain (BTCP) in the home context from the perspective of patients with advanced cancer and their primary family caregiver. METHODS: A health monitoring system was deployed in the homes of patient and family caregiver dyads to collect self-reported pain events and contextual environmental data (light, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, ambient noise.) Correlation analysis examined the relationship between environmental factors with: 1) individually reported pain episodes and 2) overall pain trends in a 24-hour time window. Machine learning models were developed to explore how environmental factors may predict BTCP episodes. RESULTS: Variability in correlation strength between environmental variables and pain reports among dyads was found. Light and noise show moderate association (r = 0.50-0.70) in 66% of total deployments. The strongest correlation for individual pain events involved barometric pressure (r = 0.90); for pain trends over 24-hours the strongest correlations involved humidity (r = 0.84) and barometric pressure (r = 0.83). Machine learning achieved 70% BTCP prediction accuracy. CONCLUSION: Our study provides insights into the role of ambient environmental factors in BTCP and offers novel opportunities to inform personalized pain management strategies, remotely support patients and their caregivers in self-symptom management. This research provides preliminary evidence of the impact of ambient environmental factors on BTCP in the home setting. We utilized real-world data and correlation analysis to provide an understanding of the relationship between environmental factors and cancer pain which may be helpful to others engaged in similar work.

Dynamical Properties of Postural Control in Obese Community-Dwelling Older Adults †.

Postural control is a key aspect in preventing falls. The aim of this study was to determine if obesity affected balance in community-dwelling older adults and serve as an indicator of fall risk. The participants were randomly assigned to receive a comprehensive geriatric assessment followed by a longitudinal assessment of their fall history. The standing postural balance was measured for 98 participants with a Body Mass Index (BMI) ranging from 18 to 63 kg/m², using a force plate and an inertial measurement unit affixed at the sternum. Participants' fall history was recorded over 2 years and participants with at least one fall in the prior year were classified as fallers. The results suggest that body weight/BMI is an additional risk factor for falling in elderly persons and may be an important marker for fall risk. The linear variables of postural analysis suggest that the obese fallers have significantly higher sway area and sway ranges, along with higher root mean square and standard deviation of time series. Additionally, it was found that obese fallers have lower complexity of anterior-posterior center of pressure time series. Future studies should examine more closely the combined effect of aging and obesity on dynamic balance.

Use of Body Sensors to Examine Nocturnal Agitation, Sleep, and Urinary Incontinence in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease.

Nighttime agitation, sleep disturbances, and urinary incontinence (UI) occur frequently in individuals with dementia and can add additional burden to family caregivers, although the co-occurrence of these symptoms is not well understood. The purpose of the current study was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using passive body sensors in community-dwelling individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) by family caregivers and the correlates among these distressing symptoms. A single-group, descriptive design with convenience sampling of participants with AD and their family caregivers was undertaken to address the study aims. Results showed that using body sensors was feasible and acceptable and that patterns of nocturnal agitation, sleep, and UI could be determined and were correlated in study participants. Using data from body sensors may be useful to develop and implement targeted, individualized interventions to lessen these distressing symptoms and decrease caregiver burden. Further study in this field is warranted. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 44(8), 19-26.].

Maintained Individual Data Distributed Likelihood Estimation (MIDDLE).

Maintained Individual Data Distributed Likelihood Estimation (MIDDLE) is a novel paradigm for research in the behavioral, social, and health sciences. The MIDDLE approach is based on the seemingly impossible idea that data can be privately maintained by participants and never revealed to researchers, while still enabling statistical models to be fit and scientific hypotheses tested. MIDDLE rests on the assumption that participant data should belong to, be controlled by, and remain in the possession of the participants themselves. Distributed likelihood estimation refers to fitting statistical models by sending an objective function and vector of parameters to each participant's personal device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, computer), where the likelihood of that individual's data is calculated locally. Only the likelihood value is returned to the central optimizer. The optimizer aggregates likelihood values from responding participants and chooses new vectors of parameters until the model converges. A MIDDLE study provides significantly greater privacy for participants, automatic management of opt-in and opt-out consent, lower cost for the researcher and funding institute, and faster determination of results. Furthermore, if a participant opts into several studies simultaneously and opts into data sharing, these studies automatically have access to individual-level longitudinal data linked across all studies.

Describing and visualizing the patient and caregiver experience of cancer pain in the home context using ecological momentary assessments.

Background: Pain continues to be a difficult and pervasive problem for patients with cancer, and those who care for them. Remote health monitoring systems (RHMS), such as the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C), can utilize Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) to provide a more holistic understanding of the patient and family experience of cancer pain within the home context. Methods: Participants used the BESI-C system for 2-weeks which collected data via EMAs deployed on wearable devices (smartwatches) worn by both patients with cancer and their primary family caregiver. We developed three unique EMA schemas that allowed patients and caregivers to describe patient pain events and perceived impact on quality of life from their own perspective. EMA data were analyzed to provide a descriptive summary of pain events and explore different types of data visualizations. Results: Data were collected from five (n = 5) patient-caregiver dyads (total 10 individual participants, 5 patients, 5 caregivers). A total of 283 user-initiated pain event EMAs were recorded (198 by patients; 85 by caregivers) over all 5 deployments with an average severity score of 5.4/10 for patients and 4.6/10 for caregivers' assessments of patient pain. Average self-reported overall distress and pain interference levels (1 = least distress; 4 = most distress) were higher for caregivers (x¯ 3.02, x¯2.60,respectively) compared to patients (x¯ 2.82, x¯ 2.25, respectively) while perceived burden of partner distress was higher for patients (i.e., patients perceived caregivers to be more distressed, x¯ 3.21, than caregivers perceived patients to be distressed, x¯2.55). Data visualizations were created using time wheels, bubble charts, box plots and line graphs to graphically represent EMA findings. Conclusion: Collecting data via EMAs is a viable RHMS strategy to capture longitudinal cancer pain event data from patients and caregivers that can inform personalized pain management and distress-alleviating interventions.

Towards breath sensors that are self-powered by design.

Piezoelectric materials are widely used to generate electric charge from mechanical deformation or vice versa. These strategies are increasingly common in implantable medical devices, where sensing must be done on small scales. In the case of a flow rate sensor, a sensor's energy harvesting rate could be mapped to that flow rate, making it 'self-powered by design (SPD)'. Prior fluids-based SPD work has focused on turbulence-driven resonance and has been largely empirical. Here, we explore the possibility of sub-resonant SPD flow sensing in a human airway. We present a physical model of piezoelectric sensing/harvesting in the airway, which we validated with a benchtop experiment. Our work offers a model-based roadmap for implantable SPD sensing solutions. We also use the model to theorize a new form of SPD sensing that can detect broadband flow information.

Deploying the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer Smart Health System to Support Patients and Family Caregivers in Managing Pain: Feasibility and Acceptability Study.

BACKGROUND: Distressing cancer pain remains a serious symptom management issue for patients and family caregivers, particularly within home settings. Technology can support home-based cancer symptom management but must consider the experience of patients and family caregivers, as well as the broader environmental context. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to test the feasibility and acceptability of a smart health sensing system-Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C)-that was designed to support the monitoring and management of cancer pain in the home setting. METHODS: Dyads of patients with cancer and their primary family caregivers were recruited from an outpatient palliative care clinic at an academic medical center. BESI-C was deployed in each dyad home for approximately 2 weeks. Data were collected via environmental sensors to assess the home context (eg, light and temperature); Bluetooth beacons to help localize dyad positions; and smart watches worn by both patients and caregivers, equipped with heart rate monitors, accelerometers, and a custom app to deliver ecological momentary assessments (EMAs). EMAs enabled dyads to record and characterize pain events from both their own and their partners' perspectives. Sensor data streams were integrated to describe and explore the context of cancer pain events. Feasibility was assessed both technically and procedurally. Acceptability was assessed using postdeployment surveys and structured interviews with participants. RESULTS: Overall, 5 deployments (n=10 participants; 5 patient and family caregiver dyads) were completed, and 283 unique pain events were recorded. Using our "BESI-C Performance Scoring Instrument," the overall technical feasibility score for deployments was 86.4 out of 100. Procedural feasibility challenges included the rurality of dyads, smart watch battery life and EMA reliability, and the length of time required for deployment installation. Postdeployment acceptability Likert surveys (1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree) found that dyads disagreed that BESI-C was a burden (1.7 out of 5) or compromised their privacy (1.9 out of 5) and agreed that the system collected helpful information to better manage cancer pain (4.6 out of 5). Participants also expressed an interest in seeing their own individual data (4.4 out of 5) and strongly agreed that it is important that data collected by BESI-C are shared with their respective partners (4.8 out of 5) and health care providers (4.8 out of 5). Qualitative feedback from participants suggested that BESI-C positively improved patient-caregiver communication regarding pain management. Importantly, we demonstrated proof of concept that seriously ill patients with cancer and their caregivers will mark pain events in real time using a smart watch. CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to deploy BESI-C, and dyads find the system acceptable. By leveraging human-centered design and the integration of heterogenous environmental, physiological, and behavioral data, the BESI-C system offers an innovative approach to monitor cancer pain, mitigate the escalation of pain and distress, and improve symptom management self-efficacy. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/16178.

Validity and Feasibility of the Monitoring and Modeling Family Eating Dynamics System to Automatically Detect In-field Family Eating Behavior: Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: The field of dietary assessment has a long history, marked by both controversies and advances. Emerging technologies may be a potential solution to address the limitations of self-report dietary assessment methods. The Monitoring and Modeling Family Eating Dynamics (M2FED) study uses wrist-worn smartwatches to automatically detect real-time eating activity in the field. The ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology was also used to confirm whether eating occurred (ie, ground truth) and to measure other contextual information, including positive and negative affect, hunger, satiety, mindful eating, and social context. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to report on participant compliance (feasibility) to the 2 distinct EMA protocols of the M2FED study (hourly time-triggered and eating event-triggered assessments) and on the performance (validity) of the smartwatch algorithm in automatically detecting eating events in a family-based study. METHODS: In all, 20 families (58 participants) participated in the 2-week, observational, M2FED study. All participants wore a smartwatch on their dominant hand and responded to time-triggered and eating event-triggered mobile questionnaires via EMA while at home. Compliance to EMA was calculated overall, for hourly time-triggered mobile questionnaires, and for eating event-triggered mobile questionnaires. The predictors of compliance were determined using a logistic regression model. The number of true and false positive eating events was calculated, as well as the precision of the smartwatch algorithm. The Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman rank correlation were used to determine whether there were differences in the detection of eating events by participant age, gender, family role, and height. RESULTS: The overall compliance rate across the 20 deployments was 89.26% (3723/4171) for all EMAs, 89.7% (3328/3710) for time-triggered EMAs, and 85.7% (395/461) for eating event-triggered EMAs. Time of day (afternoon odds ratio [OR] 0.60, 95% CI 0.42-0.85; evening OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.38-0.74) and whether other family members had also answered an EMA (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.66-2.58) were significant predictors of compliance to time-triggered EMAs. Weekend status (OR 2.40, 95% CI 1.25-4.91) and deployment day (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.86-0.97) were significant predictors of compliance to eating event-triggered EMAs. Participants confirmed that 76.5% (302/395) of the detected events were true eating events (ie, true positives), and the precision was 0.77. The proportion of correctly detected eating events did not significantly differ by participant age, gender, family role, or height (P>.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that EMA is a feasible tool to collect ground-truth eating activity and thus evaluate the performance of wearable sensors in the field. The combination of a wrist-worn smartwatch to automatically detect eating and a mobile device to capture ground-truth eating activity offers key advantages for the user and makes mobile health technologies more accessible to nonengineering behavioral researchers.

Wearable Respiration Monitoring: Interpretable Inference With Context and Sensor Biomarkers.

Continuous monitoring of breathing rate (BR), minute ventilation (VE), and other respiratory parameters could transform care for and empower patients with chronic cardio-pulmonary conditions, such as asthma. However, the clinical standard for measuring respiration, namely Spirometry, is hardly suitable for continuous use. Wearables can track many physiological signals, like ECG and motion, yet respiration tracking faces many challenges. In this work, we infer respiratory parameters from wearable ECG and wrist motion signals. We propose a modular and generalizable classification-regression pipeline to utilize available context information, such as physical activity, in learning context-conditioned inference models. Novel morphological and power domain features from the wearable ECG are extracted to use with these models. Exploratory feature selection methods are incorporated in this pipeline to discover application-driven interpretable biomarkers. Using data from 15 subjects, we evaluate two implementations of the proposed inference pipeline: for BR and VE. Each implementation compares generalized linear model, random forest, support vector machine, Gaussian process regression, and neighborhood component analysis as regression models. Permutation, regularization, and relevance determination methods are used to rank the ECG features to identify robust ECG biomarkers across models and activities. This work demonstrates the potential of wearable sensors not only in continuous monitoring, but also in designing biomarker-driven preventive measures.

Rehabilitation Tracking of Athletes Post Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACL-R) Surgery Through Causal Analysis of Gait Data & Computational Modeling.

Early identification of motion disparities in Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstructed (ACL-R) athletes may better post-operative decision making when returning athletes to sport. Existing return to play assessments consist of assessments of muscle strength, functional tasks, patient-reported outcomes, and 3D coordinate tracking. However, these methods primarily depend on the medical provider's intuition to release them to participate in an unrestricted activity after ACL-R that may cause reinjury or long-term impacts. This study proposes a wearable sensor-based system that helps track athlete rehabilitation progress and return to sport decision making. For this, we capture gait data from 89 ACL-R athletes during their walking and jogging trials. The raw gyroscope data collected from this system is used to extract causal features based on Nolte's phase slope index. Features extracted from this study are used to develop computational models that classify ACL-R athletes based on their reconstructed knee during two visits (3-6 months & 9 months) post ACL-R surgery. The classifier's performance degradation in detecting ACL-R athletes injured knee during multiple visits supports athletic trainers and physicians' decision-making process to confirm an athlete's safe return to sport.Clinical Relevance- This study develops computational models based on causal analysis of gait data to support athletic trainers and medical practitioners' decision to return athletes to sport post ACL-R surgery.

Dementia Caregiver Experiences and Recommendations for Using the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention System at Home: Usability and Acceptability Study.

BACKGROUND: Caregiver burden associated with dementia-related agitation is one of the most common reasons for a community-dwelling person living with dementia to transition to a care facility. The Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention (BESI) for the Dementia Caregiver Empowerment system uses sensing technology, smartwatches, tablets, and data analytics to detect and predict agitation in persons living with dementia and to provide just-in-time notifications and dyad-specific intervention recommendations to caregivers. The BESI system has shown that there is a valid relationship between dementia-related agitation and environmental factors and that caregivers prefer a home-based monitoring system. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to obtain input from caregivers of persons living with dementia on the value, usability, and acceptability of the BESI system in the home setting and obtain their insights and recommendations for the next stage of system development. METHODS: A descriptive qualitative design with thematic analysis was used to analyze 10 semistructured interviews with caregivers. The interviews comprised 16 questions, with an 80% (128/160) response rate. RESULTS: Postdeployment caregiver feedback about the BESI system and the overall experience were generally positive. Caregivers acknowledged the acceptability of the system by noting the ease of use and saw the system as a fit for them. Functionality issues such as timeliness in agitation notification and simplicity in the selection of agitation descriptors on the tablet interface were identified, and caregivers indicated a desire for more word options to describe agitation behaviors. Agitation intervention suggestions were well received by the caregivers, and the resulting decrease in the number and severity of agitation events helped confirm that the BESI system has good value and acceptability. Thematic analysis suggested several subjective experiences and yielded the themes of usefulness and helpfulness. CONCLUSIONS: This study determined preferences for assessing caregiver strain and burden, explored caregiver acceptance of the technology system (in-home sensors, actigraph or smart watch technology, and tablet devices), discerned caregiver insights on the burden and stress of caring for persons living with dementia experiencing agitation in dementia, and solicited caregiver input and recommendations for system changes. The themes of usefulness and helpfulness support the use of caregiver knowledge and experience to inform further development of the technology.

Capacitive Sensing for Monitoring Stent Patency in the Central Airway.

Central airway obstruction (CAO) is a respiratory disorder characterized by the blockage of the trachea and/or the main bronchi that can be life-threatening. Airway stenting is a palliative procedure for CAO commonly used given its efficacy. However, mucus impaction, secretion retention, and granulation tissue growth are known complications that can counteract the stent's benefits. To prevent these situations, patients are routinely brought into the hospital to check stent patency, incurring a burden for the patient and the health care system, unnecessarily when no problems are found. In this paper, we introduce a capacitive sensor embedded in a stent that can detect solid and colloidal obstructions in the stent, as such obstructions alter the capacitor's dielectric relative permittivity. In the case of colloidal obstructions (e.g., mucus), volumes as low as 0.1 ml can be detected. Given the small form factor of the sensor, it could be adapted to a variety of stent types without changing the standard bronchoscopy insertion method. The proposed system is a step forward in the development of smart airway stents that overcome the limitations of current stenting technology.Clinical Relevance- This establishes the foundation for smart stent technology to monitor stent patency as an alternative to rutinary bronchoscopies.

Portable, Non-Invasive Fall Risk Assessment in End Stage Renal Disease Patients on Hemodialysis.

Patients with end stage renal diseases (ESRD) on hemodialysis (HD) have high morbidity and mortality due to multiple causes, one of which is dramatically higher fall rates than the general population. The mobility mechanisms that contribute to falls in this population must be understood if adequate interventions for fall prevention are to be achieved. This study utilizes emerging non-invasive, portable gait, posture, strength, and stability assessment technologies to extract various mobility parameters that research has shown to be predictive of fall risk in the general population. As part of an ongoing human subjects study, mobility measures such as postural and locomotion profiles were obtained from five (5) ESRD patients undergoing HD treatments. To assess the effects of post-HD-fatigue on fall risk, both the pre- and post-HD measurements were obtained. Additionally, the effects of inter-HD periods (two days vs. three days) were investigated using the non-invasive, wireless, body-worn motion capture technology and novel signal processing algorithms. The results indicated that HD treatment influenced strength and mobility (i.e., weaker and slower after the dialysis, increasing the susceptibility to falls while returning home) and inter-dialysis period influenced pre-HD profiles (increasing the susceptibility to falls before they come in for a HD treatment). Methodology for early detection of increased fall risk - before a fall event occurs - using the portable mobility assessment technology for out-patient monitoring is further explored, including targeting interventions to identified individuals for fall prevention.

Understanding the Experience of Cancer Pain From the Perspective of Patients and Family Caregivers to Inform Design of an In-Home Smart Health System: Multimethod Approach.

BACKGROUND: Inadequately managed pain is a serious problem for patients with cancer and those who care for them. Smart health systems can help with remote symptom monitoring and management, but they must be designed with meaningful end-user input. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to understand the experience of managing cancer pain at home from the perspective of both patients and family caregivers to inform design of the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C) smart health system. METHODS: This was a descriptive pilot study using a multimethod approach. Dyads of patients with cancer and difficult pain and their primary family caregivers were recruited from an outpatient oncology clinic. The participant interviews consisted of (1) open-ended questions to explore the overall experience of cancer pain at home, (2) ranking of variables on a Likert-type scale (0, no impact; 5, most impact) that may influence cancer pain at home, and (3) feedback regarding BESI-C system prototypes. Qualitative data were analyzed using a descriptive approach to identity patterns and key themes. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS; basic descriptive statistics and independent sample t tests were run. RESULTS: Our sample (n=22; 10 patient-caregiver dyads and 2 patients) uniformly described the experience of managing cancer pain at home as stressful and difficult. Key themes included (1) unpredictability of pain episodes; (2) impact of pain on daily life, especially the negative impact on sleep, activity, and social interactions; and (3) concerns regarding medications. Overall, taking pain medication was rated as the category with the highest impact on a patient's pain (=4.79), followed by the categories of wellness (=3.60; sleep quality and quantity, physical activity, mood and oral intake) and interaction (=2.69; busyness of home, social or interpersonal interactions, physical closeness or proximity to others, and emotional closeness and connection to others). The category related to environmental factors (temperature, humidity, noise, and light) was rated with the lowest overall impact (=2.51). Patients and family caregivers expressed receptivity to the concept of BESI-C and reported a preference for using a wearable sensor (smart watch) to capture data related to the abrupt onset of difficult cancer pain. CONCLUSIONS: Smart health systems to support cancer pain management should (1) account for the experience of both the patient and the caregiver, (2) prioritize passive monitoring of physiological and environmental variables to reduce burden, and (3) include functionality that can monitor and track medication intake and efficacy; wellness variables, such as sleep quality and quantity, physical activity, mood, and oral intake; and levels of social interaction and engagement. Systems must consider privacy and data sharing concerns and incorporate feasible strategies to capture and characterize rapid-onset symptoms.

Automatic, wearable-based, in-field eating detection approaches for public health research: a scoping review.

Dietary intake, eating behaviors, and context are important in chronic disease development, yet our ability to accurately assess these in research settings can be limited by biased traditional self-reporting tools. Objective measurement tools, specifically, wearable sensors, present the opportunity to minimize the major limitations of self-reported eating measures by generating supplementary sensor data that can improve the validity of self-report data in naturalistic settings. This scoping review summarizes the current use of wearable devices/sensors that automatically detect eating-related activity in naturalistic research settings. Five databases were searched in December 2019, and 618 records were retrieved from the literature search. This scoping review included N = 40 studies (from 33 articles) that reported on one or more wearable sensors used to automatically detect eating activity in the field. The majority of studies (N = 26, 65%) used multi-sensor systems (incorporating > 1 wearable sensors), and accelerometers were the most commonly utilized sensor (N = 25, 62.5%). All studies (N = 40, 100.0%) used either self-report or objective ground-truth methods to validate the inferred eating activity detected by the sensor(s). The most frequently reported evaluation metrics were Accuracy (N = 12) and F1-score (N = 10). This scoping review highlights the current state of wearable sensors' ability to improve upon traditional eating assessment methods by passively detecting eating activity in naturalistic settings, over long periods of time, and with minimal user interaction. A key challenge in this field, wide variation in eating outcome measures and evaluation metrics, demonstrates the need for the development of a standardized form of comparability among sensors/multi-sensor systems and multidisciplinary collaboration.

BESI: Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Dementia Caregiver Empowerment-Phases 1 and 2.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Caregiver burden associated with dementia-related agitation is one of the commonest reasons a community-dwelling person with dementia (PWD) transitions to a care facility. Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Dementia Caregiver Empowerment (BESI) is a system of body-worn and in-home sensors developed to provide continuous, noninvasive agitation assessment and environmental context monitoring to detect early signs of agitation and its environmental triggers. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This mixed methods, remote ethnographic study is explored in a 3-phase, multiyear plan. In Phase 1, we developed and refined the BESI system and completed usability studies. Validation of the system and the development of dyad-specific models of the relationship between agitation and the environment occurred in Phase 2. RESULTS: Phases 1 and 2 results facilitated targeted changes in BESI, thus improving its overall usability for the final phase of the study, when real-time notifications and interventions will be implemented. CONCLUSION: Our results show a valid relationship between the presence of dementia related agitation and environmental factors and that persons with dementia and their caregivers prefer a home-based monitoring system like BESI.

Multiple-Instance Learning for Sparse Behavior Modeling from Wearables: Toward Dementia-Related Agitation Prediction.

Agitation in persons with dementia (PWD) poses major health risks both for themselves and for their caregivers. Passive sensing based continuous behavior tracking can prevent the escalation of such episodes. But, predicting such behavior from sensor streams, especially in real-world residential settings, is still an active area of research. Major challenges include the sparsity, unpredictability, and variations in such behavior, as well as the "weak" annotations from real-world participants. This paper proposes a novel approach to overcome these issues in predicting agitation episodes from the PWD's wrist motion data. In a transdisciplinary study on dementia dyads residing in their homes, the PWD motion is continuously sensed from their smart watch inertial sensors, while agitation episodes are actively marked by the caregivers. The data from 10 residential deployments, each with 30 days duration, are analyzed in this paper, and multiple-instance learning (MIL) based models are implemented to learn from such sparse and weakly annotated data. These models are compared with single-instance models in predicting the agitated behavior. The results show the potential of MIL models in sparsely labeled behavior inference from wearables in-the-wild.

Inferring Respiratory Minute Volume from Wrist Motion.

Exposure to air pollutants poses major health risk for patients with chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. Such risk can be mitigated by continuous exposure tracking. The effective dose of exposure is directly proportional to the respiratory minute volume, aka minute ventilation (VE). Till date, the clinical standard for measuring VE is Spirometry, a highly invasive and cumbersome modality, which is not suitable for continuous day-to-day use. This paper presents a novel non-invasive method toward continuous assessment of VE using a wrist-mount wearable motion sensor. Data from 25 healthy subjects were collected while they performed ambulatory and sedentary activities and physical exercises. Noise and artifacts of the motion signal are removed and the processed signal is used to extract explanatory features. The features are used to train and evaluate multiple regression models, among which, the probabilistic Gaussian process regression achieves the best performance in inferring VE from the wearable motion signal. The effects of inter- and intra-personal variations are explored to demonstrate the potential of the proposed method for continuously monitoring pollutant exposure risk in respiratory health applications.

Sensing eating mimicry among family members.

Family relationships influence eating behavior and health outcomes (e.g., obesity). Because eating is often habitual (i.e., automatically driven by external cues), unconscious behavioral mimicry may be a key interpersonal influence mechanism for eating within families. This pilot study extends existing literature on eating mimicry by examining whether multiple family members mimicked each other's bites during natural meals. Thirty-three participants from 10 families were videotaped while eating an unstructured family meal in a kitchen lab setting. Videotapes were coded for participants' bite occurrences and times. We tested whether the likelihood of a participant taking a bite increased when s/he was externally cued by a family eating partner who had recently taken a bite (i.e., bite mimicry). A paired-sample t-test indicated that participants had a significantly faster eating rate within the 5 s following a bite by their eating partner, compared to their bite rate at other times (t = 7.32, p < .0001). Nonparametric permutation testing identified five of 78 dyads in which there was significant evidence of eating mimicry; and 19 of 78 dyads that had p values < .1. This pilot study provides preliminary evidence that suggests eating mimicry may occur among a subset of family members, and that there may be types of family ties more prone to this type of interpersonal influence during meals.

Leveraging Smart Health Technology to Empower Patients and Family Caregivers in Managing Cancer Pain: Protocol for a Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND: An estimated 60%-90% of patients with cancer experience moderate to severe pain. Poorly managed cancer pain negatively affects the quality of life for both patients and their family caregivers and can be a particularly challenging symptom to manage at home. Mobile and wireless technology ("Smart Health") has significant potential to support patients with cancer and their family caregivers and empower them to safely and effectively manage cancer pain. OBJECTIVE: This study will deploy a package of sensing technologies, known as Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C), and evaluate its feasibility and acceptability among patients with cancer-family caregiver dyads. Our primary aims are to explore the ability of BESI-C to reliably measure and describe variables relevant to cancer pain in the home setting and to better understand the dyadic effect of pain between patients and family caregivers. A secondary objective is to explore how to best share collected data among key stakeholders (patients, caregivers, and health care providers). METHODS: This descriptive two-year pilot study will include dyads of patients with advanced cancer and their primary family caregivers recruited from an academic medical center outpatient palliative care clinic. Physiological (eg, heart rate, activity) and room-level environmental variables (ambient temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, light, and noise) will be continuously monitored and collected. Behavioral and experiential variables will be actively collected when the caregiver or patient interacts with the custom BESI-C app on their respective smart watch to mark and describe pain events and answer brief, daily ecological momentary assessment surveys. Preliminary analysis will explore the ability of the sensing modalities to infer and detect pain events. Feasibility will be assessed by logistic barriers related to in-home deployment, technical failures related to data capture and fidelity, smart watch wearability issues, and patient recruitment and attrition rates. Acceptability will be measured by dyad perceptions and receptivity to BESI-C through a brief, structured interview and surveys conducted at deployment completion. We will also review summaries of dyad data with participants and health care providers to seek their input regarding data display and content. RESULTS: Recruitment began in July 2019 and is in progress. We anticipate the preliminary results to be available by summer 2021. CONCLUSIONS: BESI-C has significant potential to monitor and predict pain while concurrently enhancing communication, self-efficacy, safety, and quality of life for patients and family caregivers coping with serious illness such as cancer. This exploratory research offers a novel approach to deliver personalized symptom management strategies, improve patient and caregiver outcomes, and reduce disparities in access to pain management and palliative care services. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/16178.