The ever-evolving world of health trackers

 

In 2018, we published a whitepaper that talked about the growing use of wearables in healthcare and how this could affect patients and the healthcare system. In the time since that article was distributed, the utilization of wearable tech in medical services has developed and expanded at a fast speed. In this blog, we take a fresh look at wearable technology and how recent advancements have impacted the patient and healthcare professional healthcare experience.

How far has the technology come?

To get a sense of how far wearable technology has come since our previous article, we can start by comparing the most popular devices of 2018 to those of today.

The typical fitness watch or tracker comes to mind when we think of health-related wearables. The Apple Watch Series 3 and the Versa and Ionic from Fitbit were the most well-known of these devices in the summer of 2018, and their key tracking features included:

Heart rate monitoring is the process of measuring both the active and resting heart rates.

Fitness-based parameters like the number of steps taken, the number of calories burned, and the recording of manual activities

Resting following - in view of both rest quality and absolute hours dozed.

However, as the all-encompassing smartwatch's adoption began to accelerate, we were on the verge of a significant shift in the wearables landscape, which saw wearables transform from a fitness fad into a lifestyle staple.

In addition to the standard fitness parameters, these more recent devices were made to be worn continuously throughout the day and night. They track a wider range of everyday features. This resulted in users wearing their devices on a consistent basis, as opposed to just during workouts or "health kicks." We were now gaining insight into our general health rather than just our exercise capabilities as data were being recorded continuously throughout the day.

A whole new ballgame

These days, the primary players in the wearable market incorporate various producers, like Samsung, Apple, Fitbit and Garmin. While the aforementioned features are still present, new technology has made it possible to add features like:

Resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate variability (HRV) optical and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors the interval between heartbeats) can now be tracked, allowing for the identification of heart rhythm irregularities.

SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation) monitoring was a crucial indicator of overall health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Temperature sensors can be useful for more in-depth tracking of menstruation cycles.

Monitoring one's breathing rate is useful for evaluating one's overall well-being.

Fall detection, as well as the ability to get in touch with the emergency services if you don't respond.

An electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor that is able to monitor changes in sweat level and perform a "scan" in order to provide a stress reading at any one time is one of the features of stress analysis. Other features include the generation of a daily stress score based on factors such as HRV, RHR, and sleep score.

It is pretty mind-boggling how sophisticated the technology that has been crammed into these everyday objects is. We used to think that the only place to get an electrocardiogram was in a hospital. Similarly, most of us are likely familiar with a healthcare professional (HCP) measuring our oxygen levels with a clip-on device attached to our fingers. Previously only available in a healthcare setting, specialized medical technology is now carried on people's wrists as a matter of course.

Yet, it's not exactly the thing we're checking. It's how you use and interpret the data that comes out. A major focal point of the present tech has all the earmarks of being giving further bits of knowledge into the entirety of the current measurements. Sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and women's health features, for instance, are all becoming more specific and fleshed out, resulting in an enormous amount of health data.

The application of wearables in contexts other than general health and fitness is yet another development that we are witnessing. Wearables, for instance, are available to assist diabetic patients in monitoring their blood glucose levels or to assist women in tracking their fertility.2 Products are also currently in development with the intention of assisting in the reduction of tremors brought on by conditions such as Parkinson's disease.3

Have wearables changed the way we see our health?

 

Research indicates that as many as 535 million smartwatches will be sold in 2027, up from just 51 million in 2017. Health wearables are now an integral part of our daily lives. Others have been quick to recognize an opportunity in utilizing the ever-increasing amount of data that these devices provide due to the industry's rapid expansion. An entire host of wellbeing and wellness applications have now been created to work related to wearable tech - running applications, care applications, ECG applications, circulatory strain applications, sustenance applications, infection the board applications… the rundown goes on. Basically, wellbeing wearables are not generally utilized in confinement.

However, what effect do they actually have on our perceptions of our own health? Are we as a population gaining a deeper understanding of our bodies, or does it just become overwhelming after a certain point?

Our IGNIFI team is keenly observing the landscape in search of answers to these questions as developers of patient-facing apps. Finding the right balance between enlightenment and patient activation, as well as knowing when to leave things to the professionals, will be crucial in any situation.

Have wearables had an impact on how we communicate with our doctors?

One of the fundamental worries brought up in our underlying article was that, while wearables and the information they gather would seem, by all accounts, to be a staggeringly helpful asset for doctors, the premium from HCPs seemed, by all accounts, to be low. When questioned, only about a third of doctors said they were confident in their ability to recommend wearable devices to their patients4. One of the main reasons for this reluctance was concern regarding the accuracy of these devices5, as an incorrect measurement is worse than none at all.

The management of chronic conditions is one particular area in which wearables hold great promise. After the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing interest in telehealth and remote healthcare, this is especially important. At-home health data collection is a promising field despite the pandemic's concerns about GP availability and in-person contact for some patients and accuracy issues.

In a clinical trial that is already underway, a number of organizations are working together to investigate the utilization of wearables by cancer patients. The EMBRaCE (Enhanced Monitoring for Better Recovery and Cancer Experience) project bridges the gap between primary care physicians' and hospitals' cancer care by providing a form of monitoring. It aims to alleviate patient anxiety while also providing insight into how individuals deal with cancer treatment and what can be done to support individual recovery6.

Where do we go from here?

While we have seen the business expand, and even develop more like a spot in standard medical services throughout recent years, we actually have quite far to go before these gadgets become a normal piece of medical care.

Concerns about accuracy and the resulting mistrust among doctors are probably the greatest obstacle. Wearables, on the other hand, have the potential to be an excellent resource for our healthcare systems7 if they are able to match the standard of hospital devices and provide both a means of remotely monitoring patients and a means of providing preventative care, thereby lessening the burden on physicians with limited time.

With the help of a wearable on-arm device that measures heart rate, SpO2, respiratory rates, and more, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) NHS Foundation Trust has created a 24/7 "virtual ward" designed to help patients recover in their own homes rather than in an in-patient ward.7 It will be interesting to see where the industry goes from here, if additional NHS trusts follow in the NNUH's footsteps, and if we will start to see wearable devices

The integration of health wearables into mainstream healthcare may not only alter the system's logistics, efficiency, and effectiveness, but it may also alter our communication with patients. One important aspect of our work as a creative digital health agency is communicating with patients and facilitating dialogue between patients and HCPs through apps and other channels. Information dissemination and awareness campaigns that encourage patients to talk to HCPs typically dominate patient-facing communications. However, it will be interesting to see if the tone and language we use, as well as the sophistication and detail of the apps we develop, change as a result of giving the patient more control and insight and encouraging a greater partnership between the patient and HCP.

However, for the time being, we wait and watch.

We can already observe significant advancements in the technology and functionality of wearables just a few years after our previous article. It's exciting to imagine how this capability will have been used in the future and the impact it may have already had on our overall health when combined with trend identification from mass data generation.