About this Research Topic

Background

Technology has had an increasing influence on our lives for some time, and this was accelerated by the enforced remote way of working in recent years. A benefit of this is the opportunity to move the point of data collection and intervention out of the laboratory or any other fixed location to improve accessibility. However, the requirement for evidence to support decisions during the periods of remote working may have contributed to the collection of “easy” data without consideration of how the data is generated. It is important now to be able to harness the opportunities of remote data collection and intervention, whilst balancing that with the need for valid and reliable practices.

The goal of this collection is to share evidence regarding remote data collection and intervention in sport, health and exercise sciences to support academics, practitioners and teachers to make evidence informed decisions about the implementation of such technology. This could relate to athlete or patient screening, assessment or monitoring, and interventions to influence behaviours or outcomes.

Some of the questions that we would like to help share answers to are:

Now that we can, should we go back to what we used to do?

Are remote methods as sensitive/accurate/reliable/valid as traditional methods?

Has the perception of ‘valid’ changed? (I.e. pay off between ecological validity and large data sets vs time consuming (but more controlled) lab data).

What level of accuracy is required for coaching and research? Is it different?

Can remote interventions facilitate participant accessibility and recruitment? Is there a risk of ‘imposter’ participants.

When is the application of non-gold standard data acceptable

Do advances in technology improve access to previously ‘hard to reach’ groups?

We are not limiting submissions to those that directly answer the questions posed in the ‘goal’ of the collection. Papers will be considered where authors have investigated data collection, data interpretation, or intervention delivery/implementation using technology such as mobile technology/applications (apps), wearables, video/tele communications, and participant fitness tracking data (e.g. Strava, MapmyRun). We will consider original research, review and method articles that have not previously been submitted or published in other journals.

Keywords: Assessment of Movement, Remote outcomes, Physical function, digital health, Health, wearables, activity monitoring, telehealth

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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