# The MobileToolbox for Monitoring Cognitive Function - Technical Core

> **NIH NIH U2C** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $642,824

## Abstract

Technical Core Summary
The Technical Core will provide general infrastructure and tools to address technical challenges in adopting
mobile approaches to research including: participant recruitment, retention, and support; technological
validation of new assessments; and securing data appropriately. We will provide the NIH an open and
extensible technology platform for conducting mobile health research that has already been successfully
deployed in over 20 different mobile health research studies by Sage Bionetworks and its partners. This
platform includes Bridge Server, an open-source set of cloud-based web services and tools that support the
secure deployment of mobile approaches and Synapse, a system for managing the dissemination of
biomedical research data to researchers worldwide. In our first year, we will adapt a set of commonly used
cognitive assessments for mobile implementations, and integrate these modules. Technology experts and
scientists will work closely together to develop and validate the measures. This will serve as a model for
provision of more general support for novel measure development by external developers in later years of the
program, further expanding MobileToolbox. We will achieve our overall goal to support the development and
dissemination of a broad set of mobile measures of human cognition via these Aims:
Aim 1: We will extend and support the Center’s technology platform to serve the needs of the other
center cores, external technology developers, and researchers. We will support the development of novel
mobile measures of cognition through open Application Program Interfaces (APIs), Software Development Kits
(SDKs), and standards that allow any researcher to publish new assessments of cognition through our
platform. We will develop tools for researchers to easily create, configure, and deploy mobile measures of
cognition into their own research studies, all without requiring writing new software code for each study. We will
support the collection and dissemination of mobile health data and study results in a way that prioritizes the
broad and rapid adoption of mobile cognitive assessments by the research community.
Aim 2: We will select and develop a representative set of mobile measures covering a wide range of
cognitive domains. Specific measures will be selected through interactions with the other cores, and
validated though the data and statistical analysis core. We will support the Dissemination Core by releasing
normative data, technical documentation, and best practices, and by offering customized consulting services to
ensure the assessments achieve widespread adoption and impact.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10212848
- **Project number:** 5U2CAG060426-04
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Maria Varela Diaz
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $642,824
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-15 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10212848

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10212848, The MobileToolbox for Monitoring Cognitive Function - Technical Core (5U2CAG060426-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10212848. Licensed CC0.

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