The Data Produced by Wearable Devices
The data produced by wearable devices goes beyond counting steps or telling you how many calories you burned. In fact, some consumer-directed wearables have become critical digital endpoints for clinical research, facilitated by digital health platforms like MyDataHelps.
Wrist-band and chest-band devices that track heart rate can be especially useful for medical research. Here are some of the measurements they can produce:
Continuous Glucose Monitoring
A continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device, which can also be referred to as a CGM sensor, monitor, or transmitter, tracks blood sugar levels continuously and in real-time. These devices help people better manage their diabetes by providing dynamic information about blood sugar levels and alerting them when their blood sugar level is too low or high.
Currently available CGMs require up to four finger-stick calibrations per day, ideally before a meal or after exercise. A proper site selection can minimize intercompartmental lag (a difference between shifting blood glucose and interstitial fluid) and hypoglycemic event detection error (a false alarm that occurs when a sensor reading is too low or too high). These devices are used to improve overall glycemic control and reduce the risk of complications associated with diabetes.
ECG
ECG (electrocardiogram) devices take a trace of your heart’s electrical activity and display it as a diagram on a screen. This can show whether your heart is beating normally or if you have an irregular rhythm or damage to your heart.
New technology allows wearables to track ECG signals with tiny electrode patches that stick on the chest without wire leads. These are more comfortable than the standard Holter monitors you may have had to wear in the past. They can also record a single lead or continuously monitor your heart for longer periods of time.
The best wearables are small, convenient, and easy to use. They should be light and portable, have long battery life and be able to connect to your smartphone or computer for data transfer.
Heart Rate
Insurers and employers alike are leveraging wearables to motivate employees to take control of their health. And accurate data from these devices can also strengthen or weaken a claim for emotional distress or physical injury, reports 2021 CVS Health Care Insights.
Several commercial fitness trackers have photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors to monitor heart rate in real time during moderate exercise. Two such devices were used in this study, the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ and Xiaomi Mi Band 2, whose sensors obtain PPG data using green or infrared LEDs paired with photodiodes housed in a wristband or forehead patch respectively.
These devices were compared to gold standard PSG measures of sleep/wake states, with modified Bland-Altman plots showing pairwise differences and 95% limits of agreement for device-derived and PSG-derived measurements (i.e., bias + (1.96 x standard deviation)).
Oxygen Levels
With a simple probe attached to your finger or earlobe, you can check your oxygen saturation levels in seconds. Devices like these are called pulse oximeters, and they’re now available in a variety of wearable devices from smartwatches to fitness trackers to respiratory monitors.
Oxygen saturation levels below 95 percent are considered low, which may indicate the need for supplemental oxygen. Conditions that affect breathing, oxygen absorption, and red blood cell or hemoglobin count can cause low oxygen sat.
The data that these sensors produce has a strong link to general health outcomes-increased physical activity, lower resting heart rate and better sleep are known to increase longevity. As more people sign up to participate in studies leveraging these critical digital endpoints, researchers are also using them in mental health research and chronic disease trajectory models.
Hydration Levels
Keeping up a healthy level of hydration has been proven to improve exercise performance (aerobic, anaerobic, strength, power), allow for lower body temperatures and heart rates during physical activity, increase cognitive function, and enhance immunological responses. It is an important goal for many patients, and fortunately, the ability to track their hydration levels with wearable devices has made it easier than ever to do so.
However, researchers have to be careful to account for intrinsic data quality challenges that come from a variety of device and user-related factors. These include missing, incorrect, and heterogeneous data. These issues could worsen the issue of underrepresentation without intentional work toward equitable access and use of digital biomarkers. This is a key reason why researchers must take great care to design and test hydration-monitoring algorithms.
OnePhenix is the only IPAAS software that connects your wearable data to your healthcare professionals. www.Onephenix.com.au