Current Environment:

Research Overview

Jared works translationally bringing digital health projects from research into implementation and enterprise. Through social media, forums and online communities, wearable technologies and mobile devices, there is a growing body of health-related data that can shape our assessment of human illness. Collectively, this data comprises an individual’s ‘digital phenotype’ - unique, unsolicited and real-time information about a person’s health. Jared’s current research focuses on using digital phenotypes for population health surveillance, specifically to identify and analyze specific sub-populations over space and time with the goal of better understanding patient behavior and disease dynamics. Some current research topics include foodborne illness, insomnia, autism, asthma, febrile illness, and patient experience.

Research Background

Jared is a faculty member in the Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program (Computational Epidemiology Lab), the Director of Informatics in the Innovation Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Jared has a diverse background including informatics, computer engineering, biomedical research and computational modeling. In addition to his academic positions, Jared also spends his time as the Chief Technology & Product Officer at Logisticare and Circulation, where he supports the development of a platform for Non-Emergent Medical Transportation. Jared received a BSc from SUNY New Paltz, a PhD in Immunology from Tufts Medical School and a MMSc in Biomedical Informatics from Harvard Medical School.

Selected Publications

  1.        Hswen, Y., Naslund, J.A., Brownstein, J.S. and Hawkins, J.B., 2018. Monitoring online discussions about suicide among Twitter users with schizophrenia: exploratory study. JMIR mental health, 5(4).
  2. Sewalk, K.C., Tuli, G., Hswen, Y., Brownstein, J.S. and Hawkins, J.B., 2018. Using Twitter to Examine Web-Based Patient Experience Sentiments in the United States: Longitudinal Study. Journal of medical Internet research, 20(10).
  3. Hswen, Y., Sewalk, K.C., Alsentzer, E., Tuli, G., Brownstein, J.S. and Hawkins, J.B., 2018. Investigating inequities in hospital care among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals using social media. Social Science & Medicine, 215, pp.92-97.
  4. Hausmann, J.S., Berna, R., Gujral, N., Ayubi, S., Hawkins, J., Brownstein, J.S. and Dedeoglu, F., 2018. Using Smartphone Crowdsourcing to Redefine Normal and Febrile Temperatures in Adults: Results from the Feverprints Study. Journal of general internal medicine, 33(12), pp.2046-2047.
  5. Harris JK, Hinyard L, Beatty K, Hawkins JB, Nsoesie EO, Mansour R, Brownstein JS., 2018. Evaluating the Implementation of a Twitter-Based Foodborne Illness Reporting Tool in the City of St. Louis Department of Health. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Apr 24;15(5)
  6. Hswen Y, Naslund JA, Brownstein JS, Hawkins JB, 2018. Online Communication about Depression and Anxiety among Twitter Users with Schizophrenia: Preliminary Findings to Inform a Digital Phenotype Using Social Media. Psychiatr Q. 2018 Sep;89(3):569-580
  7. Lu FS, Hou S, Baltrusaitis K, Shah M, Leskovec J, Sosic R, Hawkins J, Brownstein J, Conidi G, Gunn J, Gray J, Zink A, Santillana M., 2018. Accurate Influenza Monitoring and Forecasting Using Novel Internet Data Streams: A Case Study in the Boston Metropolis. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2018 Jan 9;4(1):e4.
  8. Hswen, Y., Naslund, J.A., Chandrashekar, P., Siegel, R., Brownstein, J.S. and Hawkins, J.B., 2017. Exploring online communication about cigarette smoking among Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia. Psychiatry research, 257, pp.479-484.
  9. Henly, S., Tuli, G., Kluberg, S.A., Hawkins, J.B., Nguyen, Q.C., Anema, A., Maharana, A., Brownstein, J.S. and Nsoesie, E.O., 2017. Disparities in digital reporting of illness: A demographic and socioeconomic assessment. Preventive medicine, 101, pp.18-22.
  10. Hswen, Y., Brownstein, J.S., Liu, J. and Hawkins, J.B., 2017. Use of a digital health application for influenza surveillance in China. American journal of public health, 107(7), pp.1130-1136.
  11. Rasmussen-Torvik, L.J., Almoguera, B., Doheny, K.F., Freimuth, R.R., Gordon, A.S., Hakonarson, H., Hawkins, J.B., Husami, A., Ivacic, L.C., Kullo, I.J. and Linderman, M.D., 2017. Concordance between research sequencing and clinical pharmacogenetic genotyping in the eMERGE-PGx study. The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, 19(4), pp.561-566.
  12. Harris, J.K., Hawkins, J.B., Nguyen, L., Nsoesie, E.O., Tuli, G., Mansour, R. and Brownstein, J.S., 2017. Using Twitter to Identify and Respond to Food Poisoning: The Food Safety STL Project. Journal of public health management and practice: JPHMP, 23(6), pp.577-580.
  13. Nsoesie, E.O., Flor, L., Hawkins, J., Maharana, A., Skotnes, T., Marinho, F. and Brownstein, J.S., 2016. Social media as a sentinel for disease surveillance: what does sociodemographic status have to do with it?. PLoS currents, 8.
  14. McGough, S.F., Brownstein, J.S., Hawkins, J.B. and Santillana, M., 2017. Forecasting Zika incidence in the 2016 Latin America outbreak combining traditional disease surveillance with search, social media, and news report data. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 11(1), p.e0005295.
  15. Manzi, S.F., Fusaro, V.A., Chadwick, L., Brownstein, C., Clinton, C., Mandl, K.D., Wolf, W.A. and Hawkins, J.B., 2016. Creating a scalable clinical pharmacogenomics service with automated interpretation and medical record result integration–experience from a pediatric tertiary care facility. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(1), pp.74-80.
  16. Hawkins JB, Brownstein JS, Tuli G, Runels T, Broecker K, Nsoesie EO, McIver DJ, Rozenblum R, Wright A, Bourgeois FT, Greaves F. (2015) Measuring patient-perceived quality of care in U.S. hospitals using Twitter. BMJ Qual Saf. 2016 Jun;25(6):404-13.
  17. Hawkins JB*, McIver DJ*, Chunara R, Chatterjee AK, Bhandari A, Fitzgerald TP, Jain SH, Brownstein JS. (2015) Characterizing Sleep Issues Using Twitter. J Med Internet Res. 17(6): e140.
  18. Jain SH, Powers BW, Hawkins JB, Brownstein JS. (2015) The digital phenotype. Nature Biotech. 33(5): 462-3.

Publications