Targeted and anonymized smartphone-based public health interventions in a participatory sensing system.

Abstract

Public health interventions comprising information dissemination to affect behavioral adjustment have long been a significant component of public health campaigns. However, there has been limited development of public health intervention systems to make use of advances in mobile computing and telecommunications technologies. Such developments pose significant challenges to privacy and security where potentially sensitive data may be collected. In our previous work we identified and demonstrated the feasibility of using mobile devices as anonymous public health data collection devices as part of a Health Participatory Sensing Network (HPSN). An advanced capability of these networks extended in this paper would be the ability to distribute, apply, report on and analyze the usage and effectiveness of targeted public health interventions in an anonymous way. In this paper we describe such a platform, its place in the HPSN and demonstrate its feasibility through an implementation.