# Project Overview


## Introduction 

Smart Health is a research project focused on collecting and linking smartphone and wearable device data with traditional health records. It will collect data from up to 10,000 consenting participants (sponsored by University of Sheffield) over 5 years. This data will be linked to NHS records via the local sub-national Secure Data Environment (SDE) for Yorkshire and the Humber.

__Goal:__ Create a pipeline that can parse, clean, and link the different Smart Health data streams to build a research database that can be used to create data extracts (subsets of the entire Smart Health database) to enable research studies. 

Initially, this will be a minimum viable product (MVP) incorporating a subset of the planned data streams. 

This will then be scaled up to incorporate other data streams/users. 

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## Data Overview

The Smart Health project is designed to integrate data from three sources to provide a holistic view of patient health and engagement. Each data stream is discussed in detail below.

#### 1. Wearable and Smart Health application data and Follow-up Questionnaire
Data gathered by wearable and smart phones applications such as iPhone and Fitbit will be managed by [Daiser](https://daiser.com/) which is a company that provides a platform for building, deploying, and connecting intelligent digital health services. Daiser are building an application to collate this data that can then be ingressed to the Smart Health project. They will also provide follow-up questionnaire data.

The smartphone and wearable data and metadata from different devices and manufacturers will need to be stored in an environment that supports processing, linkage and access for research. 

#### 2. Baseline questionnaire data
Initial participant questionnaire data will be collected via [Qualtrics](https://www.qualtrics.com/) which is an online platform for experience management (XM) that allows users to design, distribute, and analyse surveys and questionnaires with advanced features.

#### 3. Healthcare and clinical data
Routine health and clinical data will be collected via the [South Yorkshire Integrated Care Boards (ICB)](https://southyorkshire.icb.nhs.uk/).

```{figure} ../_static/sh_data_outline.webp
:width 500px
:align: centre
:alt: Image showing the ingress of encrypted data from Daiser into a RONIN Isolate Data Safe Haven managed by the University of Sheffield. This data includes GPS, wearable device and questionnaire data, alongside health records which form the Smart Health database. Data extracts are egress checked then output to a researcher space in RONIN Core.

An overview of the Smart Health project data flow
```
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## Data Connect
The technical architecture of this project, including the data handling pipeline and database design, is managed by [Data Connect](https://sheffield.ac.uk/data-connect) at the University of Sheffield. Data Connect is a Centre of Excellence at the University dedicated to advancing health and social care research to improve lives regionally, nationally and globally.

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## Secure Data Environment
The data for Smart Health contains sensitive data relating to participants' personal and healthcare data; as such, it must be handled in a secure data environment (SDE). For this project we will use [RONIN](https://ronin.cloud/ronin-isolate.html) which is an AWS (Amazon Web Services) secure cloud computing environment designed for research, particularly for handling sensitive data. The SDE is managed by Secure Data Services and Research Cloud Computing at the University of Sheffield.

The full project data will be handled on RONIN Isolate which is a highly restricted version of the RONIN platform which does not allow for internet access reducing the risk of accidental exposure of the data.

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## MVP Focus - December 2025
For the initial launch and validation phase, the MVP is strictly scoped to processing Fitbit wearable and GPS data received from Daiser.

 This MVP ends by the third week of December.