Wearable health technology: Taking healthcare into our own hands
Once used to simply monitor step count or fitness activity, wearable devices have now grown into a more complex management tool, where patients are able to continuously track their own health.
Taking healthcare into their own hands, people are able to shift from a ‘point of need’ mindset to a continuous care outlook. Such advancements means that patients and healthcare professionals are able to monitor chronic and serious illnesses day-to-day, from diabetes to chronic diseases and neurological disorders.
Breakthrough in wearable health technology
Hospitals and healthcare professionals are beginning to embrace wearable healthcare technology to monitor more chronic conditions, such as diabetes or asthma. Instead of smartwatches, this is tracked through smart patches (small adhesives with sensors that are attached to the skin), giving more accurate information around glucose, oxygen and heart rate monitoring.
In the past couple of years, wearable tech has also seen advancements in monitoring for sleep apnoea (a condition when your breathing stops intermittently during sleep), as well as technology that can detect if someone is about to fall through analysis of a patient’s walk pattern. There are multiple advancements in health tech, which are becoming more advanced by incorporating specific sensors that can record muscle or brain activity.
The integration between technology and patient records allows both the healthcare professional and patient to create a trackable plan of action for a particular illness and analyse these results on a consistent basis.
Essentially, wearable devices give HCPs an insight into what their patients are doing outside of the surgery room, from understanding their eating and exercising habits to analysis of heart, blood or sleep patterns. Practitioners are able to monitor patients long after they have been discharged from their care.
How wearable technology can help patients
“Thanks to Covid-19, we could be entering a period where these wearable health devices become essential and not just a novelty for the few,” - Dr Vincent Grasso, Global head of healthcare and lifesciences at Amelia (quote from Pharmacy Magazine)
Smartwatches are still widely used as a way to track fitness levels but now that heart rate monitoring is a prominent feature in these devices, they can be used to identify any irregular heart rhythms, which can be a sign of atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke or heart failure so by having access to their own data and information, patients can receive everyday insights into the health of their heart.
Not only can these devices monitor patients' physical care but it can also aid patients with their mental health. In particular, the Apple Watch ‘Reflect’ or ‘Breathe’ app encourages wearers to set aside a couple of minutes a day to focus on themselves, with guided practices or quick simple breathing exercises.
Used correctly, the data received can not only provide insights for the patients on their health but can also be shared with healthcare professionals to create a continual understanding of the patient's health.
Concerns with wearable health technology
Of course, with healthcare advancements, there are challenges and concerns that are raised from both a patient and practitioner point of view. The main challenges and concerns faced are:
Data accuracy - questions about how accurate the data received from wearable technology is always up for debate amongst HCPs but innovation in this area will slowly solve this issue.
Data protection - as with most tech developments, protection around the data being stored is always questioned. Proof of secure storage of patients data and continuous advancements in this area will be needed.
User accuracy - if patients aren’t using or wearing the technology correctly, this can lead to inaccurate data and diagnosis by doctors. It’s essential that patients are given all the correct information and tools they need to succeed.
Wearable technology is changing the way healthcare is accessed for patients and allowing healthcare professionals to provide more accurate and quicker diagnosis.
Wearable health technology isn’t the only advancements we will begin to see in the healthcare industry with telemedicine and other trends coming to the forefront - you can find out more about these trends here.
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