Using digital devices to reduce health disparities by adapting clinical trials

A system comprising:

• one or more computers;
• and
• one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, are operable to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• accessing, by the one or more computers, data describing characteristics of a health research study that involves collecting data over a period of time from participants through remote devices that provide health data for the participants over a communication network;
• classifying, by the one or more computers, the participants in the health research study into different categories based on attributes of the participants associated with the remote devices that provide the health data;
• monitoring, by the one or more computers, data collection performance for the participants using the health data provided by the remote devices;
• evaluating, by the one or more computers, the health research study to determine effects of the characteristics of the health research study on data collection for different categories of participants;
• based on the evaluation, determining, by the one or more computers, that one or more characteristics of the health research study that are predicted to have unequal effects on data collection performance for participants in different categories;
• selecting, by the one or more computers, a change to the health research study based on the one or more characteristics of the health research study that are predicted to have unequal effects, wherein the change is selected to increase data collection performance for participants in one or more of the categories that are predicted to experience lower data collection performance than participants in other categories due to the one or more characteristics;
• and
• in response to determining that the one or more characteristics of the health research study that are predicted to have unequal effects on data collection performance for participants in different categories, performing, by the one or more computers, the selected change to the health research study, including distributing, over the communication network and to at least some of the remote devices, configuration data that is configured to adjust operation of the remote devices receiving the configuration data by at least one of (i) setting or changing one or more sensor parameters specifying how the remote devices perform measurements using one or more sensors, (ii) setting or changing one or more data storage parameters specifying how the remote devices format or store data, or (iii) setting or changing one or more network communication parameters specifying how the remote devices communicate with a server over the communication network.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, are operable to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• accessing, by the one or more computers, data describing characteristics of a health research study that involves collecting data over a period of time from participants through remote devices that provide health data for the participants over a communication network;
• classifying, by the one or more computers, the participants in the health research study into different categories based on attributes of the participants associated with the remote devices that provide the health data;
• monitoring, by the one or more computers, data collection performance for the participants using the health data provided by the remote devices;
• evaluating, by the one or more computers, the health research study to determine effects of the characteristics of the health research study on data collection for different categories of participants;
• based on the evaluation, determining, by the one or more computers, that one or more characteristics of the health research study that are predicted to have unequal effects on data collection performance for participants in different categories;
• selecting, by the one or more computers, a change to the health research study based on the one or more characteristics of the health research study that are predicted to have unequal effects, wherein the change is selected to increase data collection performance for participants in one or more of the categories that are predicted to experience lower data collection performance than participants in other categories due to the one or more characteristics;
• and
• in response to determining that the one or more characteristics of the health research study that are predicted to have unequal effects on data collection performance for participants in different categories, performing, by the one or more computers, the selected change to the health research study, including distributing, over the communication network and to at least some of the remote devices, configuration data that is configured to adjust operation of the remote devices receiving the configuration data by at least one of (i) setting or changing one or more sensor parameters specifying how the remote devices perform measurements using one or more sensors, (ii) setting or changing one or more data storage parameters specifying how the remote devices format or store data, or (iii) setting or changing one or more network communication parameters specifying how the remote devices communicate with a server over the communication network.