Electronic Jewelry for Health

Bracelets and amulets are in the works at Dartmouth’s Institute for Security, Technology, and Society. Rather than items of mere adornment, the scientists and engineers are constructing personal mobile health (mHealth) devices—highly functional jewelry, as it were.

mHealth is a rapidly growing field where technology helps you or your physician monitor your health through mobile devices. This approach can offer more accurate and timely diagnoses as well as lower health costs. However, smartphones are often used to transmit collected medical information, and these transmissions are vulnerable to hacking.

David Kotz ’86 guides a research group whose focus is mHealth. Kotz, professor of computer science and associate dean of faculty for the sciences, works with a diverse team whose members include graduate students (Shrirang Mare and Cory Cornelius), a postdoctoral associate in computer science (Jacob Sorber, now an assistant professor of computer science at Clemson University), a computer programmer (Ronald Peterson), faculty and technical staff from Thayer School of Engineering and the Geisel School of Medicine (Ryan Halter and Joe Skinner), and others. Their wide-ranging skills are being brought to bear in a field that is redefining the relationship between patient and doctor.