Wearable tech – currently dominated by smartwatches – is a multi-billion dollar industry with a sharp focus on health tracking. Many premium products claim to accurately track exercise routines, body temperature, heart rate, menstrual cycle, and sleep patterns, among others.
However, health data captured by wearables is a topic of debate among doctors and tech experts, with some calling for more caution and standardization.
Dr Jake Deutsch, a US-based clinician, says wearable data enables him to “assess overall health more precisely.” However, not all doctors agree that it’s genuinely useful all the time.
Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP at a busy practice in Oxford, is concerned that wearables may lead to a society of hypochondria and over-monitoring of our bodies. She notes that many of these devices can be plagued by inaccuracies and noise in the data they collect.
Dr Yang Wei, an associate professor in wearable technologies at Nottingham Trent University, also highlights the issues of power consumption, movement, and noise in the data. He says that even the best wearables can’t guarantee accuracy, as they’re not designed to undergo routine medical checks like traditional devices.
The Apple Watch is reported to be the world’s best-selling smartwatch, although sales have slowed lately. However, while the tech giant uses true stories of people whose lives have been saved due to the heart-tracking function of the device in its marketing, anecdotally, I haven’t heard many cases of false positives.
Dr Percy Kapadia, a GP, notes that when patients present their data to healthcare professionals, clinicians often prefer to recreate the data using their own equipment rather than relying solely on the wearable’s results. He adds that the quality of the data depends on the quality of the device, as well as the quality of the software and algorithms used to interpret the data.
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