Job Godino

Not only am I personally interested in how well the wearables that I use are measuring my health-related activity (right now the Fitbit Surge, Fitbit Charge 2, and UA Band), but I also spend a lot of time thinking about the accuracy of wearables in my research at the University of California, San Diego. As Director of Applied Research and Technology in the Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center, I’m responsible for understanding the measurement capabilities of both research- and consumer-level wearables alike, and I’m leading projects that assess the accuracy of consumer-level wearables using a mix of lab- and field-based tests. This is important to me because a lot of my research involves the development, conduct, and evaluation of complex health interventions that utilize wearable and connected fitness devices to promote healthy changes in physical activity, sedentary behavior, diet, and sleep. Technologies that capture data and contextualize health behaviors in real-time provide a mechanism through which theory-based interventions can be personalized and widely disseminated. Furthermore, they empower individuals to collect large amounts of personal health data, which, if appropriately leveraged, has the potential to transform the conduct of epidemiological research, thus creating the foundation upon which precision medicine will be established.