ORCATECH Mobile App for Resrch

ORCATECH Mobile Application for Research (OMAR) is an application that runs on your cell phone and helps researchers collect information about your health and behaviors. It monitors how much you use your phone for calling and texting, and it keeps track of the different people you communicate with. Importantly, OMAR does not record the names or phone numbers of anyone you communicate with. While it can tell if you call the same person more than once, it does not know who that person is. OMAR does not record the content of your text messages or phone calls. 

Although OMAR collects a large amount of data, all of this data is processed to protect your privacy. This means that the application does not know your name, your phone number, or anything else that could identify you. OMAR only knows you by an identification number. Because OMAR does not know who you are, it cannot communicate with your clinician if you are ill or in danger. Researchers will not review the data OMAR collects until the end of the study. 

OMAR is inspired by the Beiwe app which was conceived and designed by Dr. Jukka-Pekka (JP) Onnela at the Harvard School of Public Health.