JUNE 2, 2023
Prajakta Belsare, PhD
Research Associate, Augmented Health Lab
Department of Computer Science
Dartmouth College
About the Presentation: The effective management of chronic diseases is largely determined by how well patients can regulate their condition with the support of healthcare providers. Understanding patient conditions and treatment adherence, when away from care providers, is often critical for making informed clinical decisions. Wearable sensors have been successfully used in recent studies to monitor and manage chronic conditions in free-living environments often referred to as “in-the-wild” conditions. However, wearable sensor data is often noisy, large, and complex. This necessitates the development of advanced signal processing, machine learning, and deep learning algorithms to uncover the underlying patterns. Combined, these can provide valuable insights into various aspects of an individual’s health behavior. By understanding and predicting these health behavior patterns, it is possible to design actionable interventions, improve patient care and even save lives. This talk will highlight a study to showcase the potential of wearable sensors. The study will demonstrate the use of wearable sensors for monitoring cigarette smoking as a step toward managing lung cancer.
About the Presenter: Prajakta is a postdoctoral researcher in the Augmented Health Lab at Dartmouth College. Her position in the computer science department is funded through a highly selective NSF Computing Innovations Fellowship. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s in Electronics and Telecommunication from the University of Pune, India, and her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Through her Ph.D. and postdoc research, she has built solid knowledge and contributed to the fields of smoking cessation and diabetes. Her research vision centers around the application of data science for human sensing and digital health with a focus on developing and using pervasive technology and digital interventions to transform the healthcare system from being reactive to preventative care. Her current projects include developing and using mobile, wearable, and digital solutions to understand, monitor, and influence factors that affect diabetes. Before coming to the United States, she founded a training company in India and trained over 600 undergraduate juniors and seniors by organizing tailored programming workshops.