Book excerpt: The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has designated the topic of real-time data capture as an important and innovative research area. As such, the NCI sponsored a national meeting of distinguished research scientists to discuss the state of the science in this emerging and burgeoning field. This book reflects the findings of the conference and discusses the state of the science of real-time data capture and its application to health and cancer research. It provides a conceptual framework for minute-by-minute data capture- ecological momentary assessments (EMA)- and discusses health-related topics where these assessements have been applied. In addition, future directions in real-time data capture assessment, interventions, methodology, and technology are discussed. Despite the rapidly growing interest in the methodology of real-time data capture (e.g. journal special issues, widely attended conference presentations, etc.), to date no single book has focused solely on this topic. The volume will serve as an important resource for researchers, students, and government scientists interested in pursuing real-time health research, and will nicely complement our lists in epidemiology, public health, and oncology.