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Garmin announces 2023 EMEA Research Grant winners

May 16, 2023


Garmin Health research award supports innovative use of wearable health data and the Garmin device ecosystem—powered by the Fitrockr platform

Garmin today announced the winners of the 2023 EMEA Garmin Health Research Grant powered by Fitrockr. Garmin Health and Fitrockr, an analytics platform specializing in health solutions using wearable technology, are proud to support innovative research through grant programs that provide the tools to conduct research studies based on health data from Garmin smartwatches. Whether it’s access to high-resolution raw data, independent data hosting or full wearable device control, Garmin products help advance health research fields in a sustainable manner.

The EMEA grant winners and their projects are as follows:

  1. Université Omar Bongo — Gabon
    1. Pilot project on the study of the influence of air pollution and climate on daily health of Gabonese students in the capital (Libreville)

This study aims to evaluate the influence of air quality, temperature and humidity on the daily health of 50 Gabonese students in Libreville against the World Health Organization’s claim that air pollution and climate change are causing a global environmental crisis with major health consequences resulting in 7 million deaths per year worldwide. The students will wear a Garmin wearable device for one week to collect their daily health data. The study will compare the participants’ health and survey data with environmental data to understand the effects of these environmental parameters on their health.

The study aims to investigate the associations between selected lifestyle determinants and their underlying physiological responses that represent individual health and well-being biomarkers using a Garmin smartwatch. The three-month pilot study will monitor selected lifestyle factors coupled with monitoring underlying physiological responses in a sample of five healthy adults. The pilot study results will provide necessary information for calculating the sample size and assessing other aspects of the following main study, which aims to create an innovative digital diary app in coherence with the Fitrockr Hub application.

The study aims to investigate the associations between selected lifestyle determinants and their underlying physiological responses that represent individual health and well-being biomarkers while wearing a Garmin smartwatch. The three-month pilot study will monitor selected lifestyle factors coupled with monitoring their underlying physiological responses in a sample of five healthy adults. The pilot study results will provide necessary information for calculating the sample size and assessing other aspects of the following main study, which aims to create an innovative digital diary app in coherence with the Fitrockr Hub application.

This pilot study aims to investigate whether a woman’s menstrual cycle stage and associated symptoms affect her receptivity to just-in-time adaptive interventions. The study involves five regularly menstruating women aged 20-35, who will use a Garmin fitness tracker (for heart rate, heart rate variability, stress, respiration rate and sleep) and a 90-day digital health intervention to collect physiological and emotional data. A previously trained machine-learning model will predict the optimal notification timing for each participant based on their data, including the stage of the menstrual cycle and associated physiological variables.

Winners to receive Garmin wearables and more

All grant winners will receive five Garmin wearables with the latest sensor technology, three months of unlimited access to the Fitrockr platform for up to 50 users and a winner’s certificate. Thereby the researchers benefit from the reliable collaborator network as well as the potential to be featured on the Garmin Health blog.

Why Garmin Health is in research

Garmin Health’s mission is to improve people’s health by creating world-class devices, providing a connected ecosystem and developing software products that advance health research.

Together with the Garmin Health connected ecosystem, Garmin smartwatches and fitness trackers provide unique solutions for research projects. The large portfolio of wearables, long battery life and premium health metrics enable extensive health monitoring1 of users who consent to data collection. With access to high-resolution raw data, Garmin Health makes biosensor data as accessible for researchers as possible. By enabling researchers to use independent device control, we want to remove any possible biases and help advance health research fields in a sustainable manner.

Garmin has been creating wrist-worn wearables since the early 2000s. The connected ecosystem along with the reliable collaborator network gives researchers the opportunity to conduct the study you envision. Whether it’s access to high-resolution raw data, independent data hosting or full wearable device control — Garmin products help researchers across a large variety of fields. Learn more about our research studies here.

1Garmin smartwatches are not designed or intended to monitor or diagnose diseases or any medical conditions.

About Garmin Health 

Garmin Health provides custom enterprise business solutions that leverage Garmin’s extensive wearable portfolio and high-quality sensor data for applications in the corporate wellness, population health, and patient monitoring markets. The Garmin Health API allows third parties to ask customers to share their data in accordance with their specific privacy policies. As part of a global company that designs, manufactures and ships products worldwide, Garmin Health supports its customers’ commerce and logistics needs, allowing enterprises to scale with a single, trusted provider. For more information, email our Garmin Health team, connect with us on LinkedIn, or visit us online at garmin.com/health.

About Fitrockr

Fitrockr is a product suite of Digital Rebels GmbH — a software company based in Berlin. Its research and analytics platform allows organizations to easily manage and synchronize Garmin smartwatches with access to high-resolution raw data, independent hosting, real-time data streams, and direct analysis and export. Fitrockr is one of the deepest integrated technology implementations of the Garmin Health API and SDK, providing Garmin Health corporate solutions since 2018.

For more information, visit Fitrock at www.fitrockr.com or learn more about Garmin Health Business Solutions at www.garmin.com/health.

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