The Center for Connected Health has launched a market research tool to help companies, device manufacturers, startups and investors better understand what consumers want from and how they actually use personal health technologies.

The cHealth Compass mobile platform creates customized surveys targeting a large research panel of U.S. adult healthcare consumers, patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals, to answer questions to support the design, testing and implementation of connected health technologies and products.

"At the Center for Connected Health, we strongly believe in patient-centered approaches to developing and deploying connected health products. Including the end users, in this case, consumers, in every step of the innovation process ensures that products will actually solve problems our patients face, and lead to better adoption and engagement," said Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, the center's director, in a release. "We have the unique advantage of operating within the Partners HealthCare network, giving us unparalleled access to leading healthcare providers and their patients, to conduct real-world, real-time research. Companies working with the cHealth Compass will benefit from the same clinical expertise, in-depth knowledge of health and consumer technologies, and innovative outside-the-box thinking and practical real-world experience our team brings to bear."

Kamal Jethwani, MD, MPH, corporate manager for research and innovation at the Center for Connected Health, is leading the project. Participants will complete monthly surveys to provide longitudinal data on their health and to shed insight on how various individual, family and community-level factors influence health behaviors, severity of medical conditions, lifestyle change and self-management of medical conditions, and technology adoption. The cHealth Compass tool, in addition to administering brief surveys to participants, can be used to quickly identify and recruit participants for research studies.

"So often, we see companies develop a device or program in a vacuum, without access to the individuals who could benefit from the product, " Jethwani said. "cHealth Compass enables companies, developers and startups to listen to and learn from the people who will ultimately use their product or service--patients, health consumers, providers, caregivers and others. We deliver actionable insights that can help to save valuable time to market, money and resources by answering specific business questions, facilitating real-world testing or providing targeted market analysis unique to connected health technologies."