Global research landscape, hotspots, and emerging trends of digital biomarkers: A bibliometric analysis

In recent years, research interest in digital biomarkers has grown rapidly, driven by their capacity to enable continuous, objective, and personalized health monitoring. However, comprehensive bibliometric analyses of global research output in this field remain limited. This study aims to systematically evaluate the current status, hotspots, and emerging trends of global digital biomarker research using bibliometric analysis.

On August 11, 2026, we retrieved publications related to digital biomarkers from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). This study encompassed articles and reviews published from January 1, 2014 to August 11, 2026. Publication years, journals, authors, institutions, countries/regions, cited references, and keywords were systematically analyzed. VOSviewer was employed to conduct co-authorship, co-occurrence, and co-citation analyses and to construct network visualization maps.

We evaluated a total of 1056 publications from 96 countries/regions, of which the United States was the main contributor. Harvard University, King's College London and the Massachusetts General Hospital were the primary research institutions. Among the 7,188 contributing authors, Najafi, Bijan was the most prolific, while Horak, Fay B. was the most frequently cited. Keyword cluster analysis reveals four main research topics: (1) Parkinson's disease and mobility monitoring in older adults, (2) AI-assisted diagnosis, classification, and prediction, (3) remote mental health assessment and passive physiological monitoring, and (4) cognitive dysfunction and neurodegenerative disease assessment.

Digital biomarker research shows the characteristics of continuous expansion and increasingly diversified themes. This bibliometric analysis clarifies major research directions and knowledge structures, supporting digital biomarker development and clinical translation.