Research at CATCH

The Center for Assessment Technology & Continuous Health (CATCH) at Massachusetts General Hospital is focusing on new approaches to medical research. CATCH is combining all sources of information on patient health – both traditional (e.g. medical records) and non-traditional (e.g. smartphone applications) sources to better define wellness and disease.

Featured Programs

Ownership of patient data

Targeted Outcomes

• Individuals will become able to collect, secure and benefit from their personal health data as well as become a central part of their health care team

Projects

• Our smartphone app uses open personal data-store technology to allow the individual to become the owner of their data, controlling who sees their data, how much and when. 
  • Learn more about using and securing patient data

Chronic diseases with a focus on cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity

Targeted Outcomes

• Improve patient engagement, healthy behavior and outcomes
• Identify patients at high risk of complications earlier
• Identify new subclasses of diabetes, obesity and other diseases
• Define early markers that illuminate upcoming flairs of heart failure and renal disease

Projects

• Our smartphone sensors empower patients to take control of their health everyday to improve their outcomes in chronic diseases and stay connected to their health care team. 
• We collect data from a broad set of sources, traditional and non-traditional, to gather new insights about when disease initiates, how it progresses and how it can be controlled. This research helps us target patients at higher risk of developing disease, as well as identify variations of diseases. 
• We are developing the capability to quantify hydration status for heart failure and dialysis patients using new sensors.