Do Wearables Fit In Healthcare?

By Ken Congdon

I admit it. I’ve been bit by the wearable technology bug. I received a Fitbit Force as a Christmas gift, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. I’ve been tracking my steps like a madman. I now intentionally park my car in the farthest spot, seek out opportunities to take the stairs, make it a point to peel myself from my computer screen every hour to take a lap around the office, and I even joined (and regularly visit) a local gym — all in an effort to up my activity level and earn those oh so tantalizing Fitbit badges.

With the influence the device has had on my personal fitness habits, it’s hard not to think about how wearable technology can be applied to address the preventative wellness initiative in the United States. Sure, naysayers scoff at the idea, saying that activity trackers will have limited impact on population wellness because, to date, these devices have primarily been adopted by individuals already inclined to be physically active and not by those with sedentary lifestyles. I was somewhere in between these two extremes. As a writer, I was concerned about how much time I spend sitting at my desk. However, until the Fitbit, nothing really motivated me to get up and get moving let alone exercise regularly. So, at least in my study sample size of one, wearable technology does have the power to change behavior.

To me, it’s not so much a question of whether wearable fitness trackers can drive people to action, but rather a question of how to make the most effective use of the massive amounts of variable data being collected by patients. For example, a Netflix programmer recently developed a hack that integrates with Fitbit to determine when users fall asleep and automatically pauses their programming. Imagine how similar concepts can be applied in healthcare. What if wearable device data could integrate with a health system’s business intelligence or analytics platform to automatically alert providers to long periods of patient inactivity, unhealthy sleep patterns, or abnormal heart rates and prompt clinical intervention? The questions are, “How do we best get this data into the hands of the provider? Who decides which wearable device data is actually valuable from a care perspective and which is noise? Can standards be developed that determine which data is clinical grade and which is consumer grade?” And, most importantly, “How do we prevent the incorporation of wearable device data from resulting in clinical information overload?” Obviously, there are a ton of kinks to be worked out, but the possibilities are certainly promising. Perhaps wearables can become much more than a mere fad, but a permanent piece of the preventative care puzzle.