Projects
Research | Other | Fun
Academic Research Projects
The following are research projects I am involved in at the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems at UCSD.
Health Games Study: Engaging Children in Exergames
The Health Games Study is a 2-year study to explore how “exergames” could be designed to improve player health behaviors and outcomes. The Health Games Study was awarded funding in the first round of funding from Health Games Research, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program established to support innovative research in the development and use of games to achieve desirable health outcomes.
The Health Games Study is a three-phase study that consists of
1. Behavioral experts applying behavioral theories to determine the extent to which behavior change principles are incorporated into exergames.
2. A laboratory study to observe adolescent (ages 10-16) interactions with different exergames through feedback on their experience playing the games and their physical, emotional, and verbal actions during game play.
3. A field study to test whether an “extertainment” game in the home increases and sustains physical activity over a 3-month period.
The Xavix game system is used in all three phases as it offers a number of interactive physical activity promoting exertainment games such as tennis, boxing, and cardio-fitness. The Xavix system consists of a consol port that connects to a television along with game cartridges and sport equipment controllers.
Principal Investigator: Greg Norman, PhD
Co-Investigators: Marc Adams, MPH, Jacqueline Kerr, PhD
Project Coordinator: Lindsay Dillon, MPH
PALMS: Cyber-Enabled Measurement of Health Behaviors in Time and Space
PALMS (Physical Activity Location Measurement System) is an integrated measurement system capable of simultaneously collecting Physical Activity Energy Expenditure (PAEE) by combined Heart Rate and Motion (HR+M), location by GPS data, and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) of physical activity-related factors. PALMS will provide significant advantages over currently-available measurement approaches and contribute to understanding relationships between PAEE, the environment, and health-related factors at the individual and population level.
Implemented as a web-based application, it will be able to support data collection and analysis for multiple studies among multiple researchers across various disciplines. The PALMS infrastructure has been designed to promote data sharing across the public, private, and academic domains.
Principal Investigator: Kevin Patrick, MD, MS
Technical Director: Fred Raab
SMART: Using Social Media and Mobile Technologies to Promote Improved Health Behaviors
SMART, Social/Mobile Approach to Reduce Weight, is a 5-year research project funded by NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). SMART is one of a family of projects funded by NHLBI that is exploring how to prevent and/or reduce weight gain in young adults that leads to obesity in middle age.
SMART research will explore the use of applications that leverage mobile phone applications as well as applications on social media such as Facebook
and Twitter. With a primary aim of weight outcomes at 2 years post-onset, one of the research challenges will be to keep intervention elements appealing and fun for users.
Collaborating with CWPHS, are researchers at Stanford University, led by Tom Robinson, and include BJ Fogg’s Persuasive Technology group. We have also engaged corporate research partners at Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto and Qualcomm. CWPHS serves as the resource coordinating center for the overall family of seven projects in this initiative.
Principal Investigator: Kevin Patrick, MD, MS
Co-Investigators UCSD/SDSU: Greg Norman, PhD, Cheryl Rock, PhD, RD, Simon Marshall, PhD, William Griswold, PhD, Jeannie Huang, MD, MPH, Karen Calfas, PhD
Co-Investigators, Stanford University: Tom Robinson, MD, MPH, BJ Fogg, PhD
Technical Lead: Fred Raab
Project Staff: Aaron Coleman, Jamielle Walker
Program Manager: Anjali Kansagara, MS, MBA
iDASH: Integrating Data for Analysis, Anonymization and Sharing
Individualized Intervention to Enhance Physical Activity (Driving Biological Project)
The lack of physical activity (PA) and continual sedentary behavior (SB) over time can contribute to a variety of health problems including obesity and premature morbidity and mortality. Although knowledge about health behavior at the individual and population level has expanded, the integration of these findings into new forms of health behavior interventions is needed. In this DBP, we will create an intervention system to provide individualized feedback to increase PA and decrease SB. We will use wireless accelerometer sensors to measure body movement and position (e.g., seated, standing, walking, running, lying down). Machine learning pattern recognition algorithms will identify and learn a person’s pattern of PA and SB during the day. By identifying patterns, the system will offer individually-tailored prompts and suggestions to increase steps and movement and decrease SB time. We will iteratively design and test the intervention system with adult participants with the goal of having an interactive system that easily integrates into an individual’s daily living.
Principal Investigator: Greg Norman, PhD,
Co-Investigators UCSD/SDSU: Sanjoy Dasgupta
Other Projects
The Active Desk
I have have been using a treadmill workstation, the Active Desk, for over a year. I currently have the Active Desk set up in CALIT2 at UCSD where I work. I’ve received a little bit on internal press about the desk and my DIY setup. You can read an article about it here and watch the video (produced by Ivanhoe media) below to learn more.
Fun
Coming soon. . .