Wednesday, June 14, 2023

9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Uppsala Biomedical Centre - Room A9:111

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Details

Background: With over six billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide, it is difficult to imagine our lives without these ubiquitous tools. Of all the Internet-connected devices, smartphones are the most versatile and universal. All indications are that these digital devices will become increasingly powerful, adaptable, and cost-effective, but most importantly, their ubiquity has important implications for equity. Smartphones provide a voice to citizens globally, and can help solve population health problems if big data can be leveraged ethically using these devices. The real question for active living and nutrition researchers is: How can smartphones and other ubiquitous wearables be transformed into effective research and advocacy tools?

Innovation: To explore this potential, the Digital Epidemiology and Population Health Laboratory (DEPtH Lab) at Western University, Canada, received federal funding from the Government of Canada in 2022 to establish a Digital Citizen Science Observatory to achieve three main objectives: 1) Expand a digital citizen science platform across international jurisdictions to create an ethical big data repository; 2) Utilize citizen science approaches to drive human-centred artificial intelligence to analyze and visualize big data in near real-time; 3) Inform behavioural and policy interventions across jurisdictions using big data.

Benefits: The Observatory has immense potential to transform both active living and nutrition research and advocacy by enabling the following: 1) Social and Societal Benefits: a) Citizen and Community Empowerment; b) Big Data-Enabled Health Promotion; c) Misinformation Management. 2) Research Benefits: a) Rapid Evaluation of Population Health Interventions; b) Real-Time Behavioural Interventions; c) Methodological and Analytical Innovation; and 3) Advocacy and Policy Benefits: a) Real-Time Knowledge Translation; b) Rapid Decision Making; C) Internet Equity and Data Sovereignty.

Objectives of #Dare2Share Session: A rapid systems mapping session to create a global digital ecosystem for active living and nutrition research by:
1) Identifying gaps and needs;
2) Discussing data sharing;
3) Addressing data ownership, privacy, and security;
4) Identifying available resources;
5) Identifying potential partners across low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

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Speaker