Tracking circadian phase and amplitude through ubiquitous consumer devices: implications for drug discovery

Music City Center 

There has been much interest but limited movement towards incorporating circadian timing into healthcare. An enduring reason cited is the challenge of tracking true circadian time at scale without the need for invasive, expensive tests. In this presentation, I will discuss gold standard biomarkers of circadian rhythms and the extent to which they can be estimated from consumer wearable devices or phones, as well as the natural patterns of circadian variation in society. I will show simulations that highlight how this variation, when coupled with the known time-of-day effects of approved drugs, can blunt the observed effect size of an intervention. I will also demonstrate the ways in which estimates of both circadian phase and amplitude can be used to clarify trial results, as well as examples from the literature where circadian phase and amplitude are hypothesized to have played a role.

wearable

circadian

chronomedicine

drug development