A modest proposal for next-generation research engagement —

Every day you wake up the world is a different place. This week, the world made a dramatic shift. The country we call home elected a person who has fanned the flames of racism, misogyny, and hatred. …

I’m not sure how you’re supposed to start these type of things, so I’ll just get right to it. Today is my first day at Fitabase. For the last five years I’ve been part of the small team over at Quantified Self Labs. It’s hard to put exactly into words…

Exploring 5+ years of Fitbit, Part 1 — “Most users only use their devices for about six months, then they end up in a drawer never to be seen again.” I’m not a typical user. I still remember where I was when I first read about Fitbit. I was in my first year of my PhD program and…

I’m a big consumer of podcasts. Ever since I started living on my own while in graduate school I’ve found that having funny and interesting people in my ears helps me get through the day. Even now that I’m cohabiting with my wife I haven’t left my trusty podcasts behind…

Well, it’s finally done. Eight years after I started this crazy graduate school journey I’ve successfully defended my dissertation. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t perfect, but it’s done and I couldn’t be happier to have accomplished this milestone. Some folks have asked to see the slides, so I thought I’d share them here. Hopefully they make sense, but don’t worry if they don’t. I’ll be posting more about this work in the future.

The Keeping Pace Study — Yesterday evening I laced up my running shoes, connected my bluetooth headphones, turned on my Spotify playlist, and most importantly, hit “Go Running” on my Runkeeper app. About an hour later and I had run 6 miles at a decent pace of around 8 minutes per mile. …

Thoughts on the Precision Medicine Initiative request for feedback on mHealth — On January 30th, President Obama announced the funding of a possibly groundbreaking research program — The Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). Launched with a $215 million investment in the President’s 2016 Budget, the Precision Medicine Initiative will pioneer a new model of patient-powered research that promises to accelerate biomedical discoveries and…

Comparing the Apple Watch and Fitbit One When the Apple Watch was announced I started waiting with bated breath to see how it could be useful for Quantified Self and self-tracking purposes. Of course this means staying up late and making sure I had one on order as soon as…