About

Founded in January 2016, the mission of the Mobile and Electronic Health Affinity Research Collaborative (ME-ARC) is to conduct state-of-the art research and training in mobile and electronic health in order to improve health and well-being, with a focus on underserved populations, across the lifespan through the use of technology.

The ME-ARC is transdisciplinary, consisting of a steering committee, an external advisory board, trainees, and over 175 member affiliates across numerous schools at Boston University. The steering committee has expertise in: implementation science, behavioral science, medicine, informatics/bioinformatics, software development, health literacy, engineering, and global health. Since January 2016, the ME-ARC continues to invite speakers at monthly seminars, and hosts an annual ME-Health Symposium.

The ME-ARC fosters interdisciplinary collaboration among Boston University researchers, provides training and mentorship to both faculty and post-docs, serves as a resource for the BU Community, establishes connections with other academic centers conducting mHealth and eHealth research, and coalesces mHealth and eHealth across BU to capitalize on our synergies to answer major funding calls for grants.

Boston University’s ME-ARC Member Affiliates represent a diverse set of fields. See all of our members here: BU ME-ARC Member Affiliates

“Mobile health” (mHealth) includes text messaging, apps, wearable devices, remote sensing, and social media. “Electronic health” (eHealth) includes the internet, gaming, virtual reality, and robotics. Mobile phone ownership has reached near saturation (95%) with no disparities by race, income or education. Greater than 85% of the population regularly use text messaging and 60% own smartphones. The benefits of mobile health interventions include: ease of use (anywhere, anytime), low cost, scalability to large populations, ability to tailor message content to users, and provision of real-time strategies.

The leadership team, steering committee, and external advisory board for ME-ARC represent a diverse set of fields across Boston University and Boston University Medical Center campuses.

The Mobile and Electronic Affinity Research Collaborative is supported by the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research