Stanford Universtiy has announced a new program to its faculty members in an effort to stimulate and support the discovery of “innovative uses” for the Apple Watch in the healthcare field. The seed grant program will offer as many as 1,000 Apple Watches, and up to $10,000 in funding.
The Stanford Center for Digital Health (CDH) invites applications for its inaugural seed grant program focused on innovative uses of the Apple Watch in healthcare. This seed grant program is designed to stimulate and support creative uses of the Apple Watch to address important issues in healthcare. We are particularly interested in high impact projects that will positively influence the selected study population and/or clinical workflow.
The new program will be run through Stanford’s new Center for Digital Health at the university’s School of Medicine. While the proposal mentions 1,000 Apple Watches in total will be given out, that number may shrink or grow depending on the project proposals that are accepted.
Participants are being asked to use Apple’s wearable device’s activity tracking or communication features to make a change in healthcare. Participants must use an iOS app with a watchOS extension, or design a workflow to deliver notifications to the Watch.
“The Apple Watch must be integrated into an overall program or study design where: 1) the sensing capability of the Watch (activity, heart rate, and/or raw accelerometer data) is used to measure the progress of an endpoint relevant to the study population; or 2) the communication/notification features of the Watch are used to drive behavior change/coaching (investigators must use an iOS app with a Watch app extension or design a workflow where push notifications can be delivered to the Watch).
Submissions will be accepted from a select group of Stanford faculty members and will close on February 26, 2017. The study will run for one full year beginning April 2017.
The Stanford program will certainly be seen as a welcome development for Apple. Although their popular wearable device has focused mainly on fitness tracking, the Cupertino firm has long expressed interest in the exploring its use in the wellness area of things.
(Via Cult of Mac)
