A computational framework for discovering digital biomarkers of glycemic control

NPJ Digit Med. 2022 Aug 8;5(1):111. doi: 10.1038/s41746-022-00656-z.

Abstract

Digital biomarkers can radically transform the standard of care for chronic conditions that are complex to manage. In this work, we propose a scalable computational framework for discovering digital biomarkers of glycemic control. As a feasibility study, we leveraged over 79,000 days of digital data to define objective features, model the impact of each feature, classify glycemic control, and identify the most impactful digital biomarkers. Our research shows that glycemic control varies by age group, and was worse in the youngest population of subjects between the ages of 2-14. In addition, digital biomarkers like prior-day time above range and prior-day time in range, as well as total daily bolus and total daily basal were most predictive of impending glycemic control. With a combination of the top-ranked digital biomarkers, we achieved an average F1 score of 82.4% and 89.7% for classifying next-day glycemic control across two unique datasets.