MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper is teaming up with behavioral health technology company Polaris Health Directions (Polaris) on an behavioral health pilot project using the Apple Watch to help improve breast cancer treatment outcomes. The integrated medical behavioral health pilot project will utilize the Apple Watch to capture behavioral data that could affect the courses and outcomes of treatment for breast cancer patients.
The partnership brings together MD Anderson Cooper’s expertise in oncology and Polaris’s deep experience in behavioral health science and innovative technology. It will leverage Polaris’s Polestar behavioral health outcomes management (BHOM) platform–an advanced data-collection-and-analytics platform that provides meaningful, actionable results for reporting on and monitoring of a patient’s expected treatment response.
Pilot Details
The project, well into the planning stage, represents another example of how providers are utilizing the Apple Watch as an instrument to improve healthcare. Based on a group of breast cancer patients in active treatment, pilot participants will each use an Apple Watch Sport 38mm with pink straps to capture and submit behavioral data such as side effects, sleep information, activity levels and mood, among others, to be analyzed and acted upon by health professionals.
Additionally, integrated medical-behavioral health pilot project will develop a new Apple Watch data gathering app and also leverage Polaris’s Polestar advanced data-collection-and-analytics platform that provides meaningful, actionable results for reporting on and monitoring of a patient’s expected treatment response.
The pilot project will undergo review and ultimate approval by the Cooper Institutional Review Board. With the support of this board, MD Anderson Cooper and Polaris could then jointly publish project findings, at intervals to be determined.
Stay tuned for pilot project progress updates in the weeks and months ahead.
