A University of Memphis research team aims to develop a cyberinfrastructure for integrating mobile streaming sensor data and metadata to foster information sharing and drive further research on health and wellness.
The mProv: Provenance-based Data Analytics Cyberinfrastructure for High-frequency Mobile Sensor Data project, funded by a five-year, $4-million federal grant, will involve researchers from UCLA, UC San Francisco and the University of Pennsylvania, according to an article at the Memphis Flyer. The cyberinfrastructure will tap open-source software developed by the Center of Excellence for Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K), which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“With the mProv provenance cyberinfrastructure complementing MD2K’s software, investigators can collect, curate, analyze and interpret mobile sensor data, as well as share data,” Santosh Kumar, M.D., project lead and a professor at the University of Memphis, said in an announcement.
“Doing so can amplify the research utility of their data and, most importantly, help establish benchmarks and bring reproducibility, which are key to scientific rigor,” Kumar added.
The mProv researchers, according to UCLA team lead Mani Srivastava, M.D., also will assess privacy concerns associated with data from mobile personal sensors, and investigate privacy mechanisms to ensure privacy of data contributors.
Such privacy concerns, as FierceMobileHealthcare has reported, are prompting a call for a comprehensive federal privacy policy due to a U.S. Department of Health and Service report regarding mHealth and security. Jodi Daniel, a partner at law firm Crowell & Moring, advocates a baseline of protection for all health information.