A UC Irvine team is studying electroacupuncture as a non-pharmacological way to lower blood pressure. The wearable side of the study runs on StudySync, after the team moved over from the MyPHD platform they started on.
The study
Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute (SSIHI), University of California, Irvine (UCI IRB #19992222, Neural mechanism of the effect of acupuncture in hypertension). Led by Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH and Mohan Babu, PhD, the team evaluates electroacupuncture (a low electrical current delivered through the arms, legs, and torso) as a treatment for adults with clinically diagnosed hypertension.
The sub-study looks for molecular insight into how electroacupuncture affects vascular health and the autonomic nervous system, combining omics profiling with continuous wearable monitoring. Blood biosamples are collected at home with a TASSO-M20 microsampling device, stripped of identifying information, then analyzed at Stanford’s Snyder Lab. The primary outcomes are changes in heart-rate variability (HRV) and systolic blood pressure from baseline, measured across an eight-week intervention. The work is supported by the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the Adolph Coors Foundation.
On StudySync
Participants wear a Fitbit wristband (plus a SensWatch multi-sensor device) from a week before therapy through the end of the study, so the team captures activity, heart rate, sleep, and HRV continuously rather than only at clinic visits.
The study originally collected this data through MyPHD, Stanford’s Personal Health Dashboard, and switched to StudySync to run it. StudySync now handles participant enrollment and consolidates each person’s Fitbit data in one HIPAA-compliant place for the research team to monitor adherence and export for analysis.
Status
20 participants enrolled. Their Fitbit and SensWatch data flows continuously through StudySync for the team to monitor and analyze as the study runs.