JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The use of data from smartphones and wearable devices has huge potential for population health research given high device ownership, the range of novel health-relevant data types available from consumer devices, and the frequency and duration over which data are, or could be, collected. Yet the uptake and success of large-scale mobile health research in the last decade has not matched the hyped opportunity. We make the argument that digital person-generated health data is required and necessary to answer many top priority research questions through illustrative examples. We then summarise the findings from two UK initiatives that sought to describe what needs to be done, and in what way, to realise the future opportunities of digital person-generated health data for clinically important population health research.