Summary

The UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media 4th Annual Conference:
Building an Evidence Base for Commercially Available Technology

May 14-15, 2020

The UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media (CHASM) 2020 Annual Conference will be 100% virtual. Enjoy this exciting program from the comfort of your home or office. The theme of the 2020 annual CHASM conference is “Building an Evidence Base for Commercially Available Technology,” and will focus on research that evaluates the reliability, accuracy, efficacy, or real world effectiveness of commercially available technology including mobile apps, sensors, devices, or social media platforms. Digital health is a $200 billion industry with countless apps, devices, platforms and sensors available in the marketplace and in the hands of millions of users. This marketplace offers myriad opportunities for research aiming to improve health outcomes. Evidence is direly needed for commercially available technologies to guide healthcare professionals on which products to “prescribe” to their patients, and to guide consumers on which products are worth their time and money.

We designed the program to catalyze research on commercial health technologies and to lay out a roadmap for best practices, including how to navigate the myriad methodological, logistical, and ethical challenges of research using commercial health technologies. We will feature nationally renowned keynote speakers from academia and industry who have expertise in using commercially available health technologies in research.

Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in virtual breakout sessions to give them closer access to speakers for advice on anything from developing relationships with industry to innovative research designs. Attendees will also be strongly encouraged to come ready to develop a research question during the conference and submit seed grant proposals to two seed grant opportunities that will open shortly after the conference.

In lieu of a poster session, attendees can submit their work in 1 minute videos which we will post on our YouTube channel and stream during the hour before the conference, during the lunch break and after the closing remarks. An award will be given for videos attracting the most views from May 8-15; as well as awards for the Best Student Poster Video and Best Poster Video Overall, as selected by our judges.

Three workshops will take place on Friday, May 15: Research Designs for Testing Commercially Available Technology, How To Write an Effective Seed Grant, and Introduction to Social Network Analysis. The seed grant competition is co-sponsored by CHASM, InCHIP, and Calm.

 
Registration Deadline: Friday, May 15, 2020 at 1:00PM EST