What Can(’t) You Measure With Decentralized Research?
Decentralized research is reshaping how we discover what works in health, wellness, and medicine. But how far can it go and what are its limits?
Author: Azure Grant - June 3rd, 2025
What Is Decentralized Research?
Decentralized research refers to the use of digital tools, remote data collection methods, and virtual study coordination to bring clinical and consumer health research out of centralized labs and into the real world. Instead of requiring participants to travel to a clinic or university, studies are conducted via mobile apps, wearables, and at-home testing kits.
Born from the early Quantified Self movement brought into the mainstream by Noah & Belinda at Science37, decentralized research is no longer fringe, it's becoming the new standard. Platforms like Chloe from People Science enable this shift, allowing for rapid, scalable studies that are inclusive, efficient, and grounded in real-life conditions.
And while many still use the term Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs), we prefer the broader term decentralized research, because it extends well beyond traditional trials. This includes consumer health experiments, participatory classroom projects, and even self-guided n=1 studies.
What Can You Study Using Decentralized Research?
The short answer? Almost anything. Here’s a breakdown of popular categories and how decentralized methods power them:
Sleep & Circadian Rhythms. Use best-in-class wearable devices, at home hormone testing or portable EEG to evaluate naturalistic sleep.
Metabolic and Digestive Health. Combine metabolic blood work with stool samples for microbiome analysis, continuous glucose monitoring and validated surveys for a well-rounded picture of participant metabolism and digestion.
Women’s Health & Family Health. Combine our custom cycle-tracker and women’s health symptom tracker with high frequency body temperature measurement and at-home hormone sampling to create a full picture of how the reproductive system impacts health at any stage of life. Study individuals, couples or even entire families in one place.
Longevity & Human Performance. Salivary biological age testing, blood nutrient panels, integration with a variety of wearable devices, time-trial and race-day monitoring.
Cognition & Mood. Cognitive testing and training powered by BrainHQ, Chloe in-app measures, Heart Rate Variability, validated mood surveys and supportive reminders from our research staff.
Cannabis & Psychedelics. From pilot studies to evaluation of psychedelic compounds in clinical practice.
Skin Health. Subjective and photographic evaluation, skin microbiome testing. Team led by board-certified dermatologist and derm-pathologist physician scientists
Implementation Science: Clinical Practice Evaluation. Evaluate the effectiveness of clinical interventions deployed at-scale, from fighting obesity to improving mental health
Participatory Research in the Classroom. Help future clinicians, herbalists and scientists learn by participating in a study. We help you bring your students into every part of the research process from design, to implementation, to analysis and dissemination of the results.
What kinds of metrics can we collect? A Look Inside the Decentralized Toolbox
Chloe
At the heart of People Science’s decentralized lab is Chloe, our Consumer Health Learning & Organizing Ecosystem.
Chloe has two parts. First, the Chloe mobile app that enables survey & wearable data collection, study instruction dissemination, scheduled tasks, communication with our study and visualization of results. Second, the Chloe backend is an end-to-end platform for experimental design, randomization, study operations, communications and database management.
All data collected in a study, whether it be subjective data from our extensive library of validated measures or the objective data described below, will be housed in Chloe.
Objective Measures You Can Collect Remotely
We offer a huge variety of objective measures that can be deployed to a participant in their home or neighborhood. Our aim is to bring the testing to the participant to maximize our speed, geographic and socioeconomic reach.
Clinical Evaluation: We can offer clinician and AI-assisted assessment of patient photographs
Cognitive Assessments: We partner with the best tools for measuring participant cognitive performance, including reaction time, multiple object tracking, fluid intelligence, spatial reasoning and more. All tasks can be completed from a participant’s home computer.
Wearables: Oura Ring, Garmin, Fitbit, Apple Watch, Smart-Scales, automated blood-pressure cuffs, Sp02 and more.
Blood Glucose Measurement: We use both prescription and consumer-grade continuous glucose monitoring depending on your needs. Powered by Abbott and Dexcom.
At-Home Blood Testing: Finger prick assays for lipid profile, ketones, infection detection, DNA testing and more.
Quest & Mobile Phlebotomy: We partner with Quest to offer their full library of tests. Participants simply show up to their nearest Quest laboratory. When needed, we offer mobile phlebotomy to bring a licensed phlebotomist straight to a participant’s home.
At-Home Salivary Measures: Salivary testing is an easy way to evaluate hormones, epigenetics and more.
At-Home Urine Measures: Urine measures enable the collection of high frequency hormone and neurotransmitter sampling without the hassle of frequent blood draws.
At-Home Stool Measures: At-home stool collection for microbiome or pathogen analysis.
Bespoke Measures: We have a large network of academic collaborators for specialty assays of hormones, immune function and more.
If you can measure it in a lab, odds are we can collect it remotely.
So... What Can’t You Measure with Decentralized Research?
Despite the broad capabilities, decentralized methods do have boundaries, and knowing them helps design smarter studies.
Invasive Procedures: Need a tissue biopsy or surgical sample? Those still require in-person visits and may not be feasible for remote participants.
Acute Interventions: For studies involving inpatient monitoring, anesthesia, or immediate post-operative care, traditional clinical settings remain essential.
Novel Drug Trials (Early Phase): First-in-human studies often demand tightly controlled environments due to safety monitoring and regulatory compliance.
Specialized Imaging: MRI, CT scans, and some types of X-rays can’t be done remotely, yet. Mobile imaging vans offer promise, but access is still limited.
Bottom Line
Decentralized research is not a compromise, it’s an evolution. When used thoughtfully, it gives researchers greater reach, higher retention, and richer context for real-world effectiveness.
If you’re studying sleep, metabolism, mood, skin, cognition, hormones, aging, or any area of health that impacts real people in real life, decentralized research isn’t just an option. It’s your new competitive advantage.
Ready to Go Decentralized?
Whether you're designing a large-scale intervention or running a solo study on yourself, People Science and Chloe are here to help. Our team operates in all 50 U.S. states and internationally.
Let’s explore what’s measurable together.
