Medical Use of Health Data From Wearables
Consumer health wearables are increasingly incorporating functionalities like glucose monitoring and blood pressure monitoring into their products. Newer devices such as Abbott’s Freestyle Libre and Dexcom enable the collection of clinical data from users that is more easily accessible to physicians.
The data produced by these wearables can help improve diagnosis and treatment and promote better patient outcomes. This could help address the healthcare gap that is causing disparities between different populations across Australia.
What sort of Health Related Wearables Can Track Data for Your Doctors?
There are a variety of health related wearables that track data for doctors. These can include medical devices like blood pressure monitors, electrocardiogram (ECG) patches, and sensor gloves, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and even augmented reality (AR) technology.
These devices can collect and analyze a lot of information on a patient’s health and wellness, sending it to the doctor in real time for analysis. They can also be used for early disease diagnostics.
For instance, Intel has developed a device that monitors a patient’s body movements in order to detect abnormalities like heart palpitations. Such early disease diagnosis can reduce the need for expensive and inconvenient doctor visits. These new tools could even lead to better medication adherence, which will ultimately improve patient outcomes. Medical wearables can also help with physiotherapy and rehabilitation. For example, a soft exosuit is being developed to assist with musculoskeletal recovery after surgery. It can provide accurate feedback on a patients’ movement patterns, helping them to perform their rehabilitation exercises correctly and with less pain.
Are Doctors Realising the Benefits of Wearable Data?
According to a recent study, doctors’ skepticism about wearable data remains an important roadblock to broader use of the technology. This is partly due to a lack of interoperability, as well as concerns about whether the data is valid and actionable.
In addition to enabling patients to monitor their own health, the data can help doctors detect abnormalities that might otherwise go unnoticed. This can lead to improved outcomes for those with chronic conditions and even lower costs for the healthcare system.
Wearable devices that track patient data have the potential to be a game changer for the industry. However, they will only be useful to doctors if they can be seamlessly integrated into their workflows and EHR systems.
Currently, a number of new wearable technologies are emerging that can be used to track various aspects of the body’s function. For example, biosensors are small adhesive patches that allow patients to move and perform daily tasks while recording important data such as heart rate, activity level, temperature, and breathing.
How can Doctors Make Use of Wearable Data?
In a nutshell, it’s about streamlining communication between patients and medical professionals. While wearables can be a great motivation tool for changing health habits, they are most useful in identifying potential issues before symptoms present themselves, thus allowing patients to visit their doctor sooner.
For example, wearables can track sleep patterns and provide data on heart rates, which varies from person to person. But when someone is fighting off an infection, their heart rate tends to spike drastically. As a result, a digital biomarker like resting heart rate can be an early indicator of disease, even though it’s not as accurate as taking a temperature.
However, not all physicians are convinced of the benefits of this data. Some believe that it will lead to patients being overdiagnosed and overtreated. They also point to a lack of studies on predictive value and the possibility that such data could expose them to new legal liabilities. Moreover, devising a system that can collect and analyse reams of patient-generated data is no easy task.
Are Doctors ready for Wearable Data?
Most doctors have seen little clinical use for data generated by common wearable devices like fitness trackers or wrist-worn heart rate monitors. But the emergence of medical IoT devices that include smart sensors that can gather more detailed physiological information, including blood pressure and body temperature, could soon change that.
Those types of devices, along with others that can record the user’s dietary intake, provide more meaningful data for healthcare professionals and improve people’s ability to manage their own health between office visits. Some of these devices also have SIM cards that allow for two-way communication with patients’ smartphones or app platforms, giving the doctor immediate access to patient-generated data.
However, there are still hurdles to overcome before these technologies gain wide acceptance in most health care settings. A big one is integrating these tools into existing electronic health records (EHR) systems. John Sharp, a senior manager at the non-profit Personal Connected Health Alliance, says physicians are often overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data that they have to sort through.
OnePhenix is the only IPAAS software that connects your wearable data to your healthcare professionals. www.Onephenix.com.au