Considerations for integrating wearables into the everyday healthcare practice

Abstract

Wearable technologies are becoming ever more popular as suggested tools for use in modern medicine. Studies evidence their growing pragmatism and provision of objective data for a more informative and personalised approach to patient care. Yet many wearables are one dimensional, despite the underlying technology being common across a large array of tools. That is primarily due to the accompanying software, unmodifiable or black box-based scripts that generally lack accessibility or modification, meaning wearables may often get discarded. Use of wearables for sustainable healthcare needs careful consideration.

Citizen data sovereignty is key to wearables and wellness data reuse for the common good

“…Data from consumer-facing domains in wellness and lifestyle are effectively inseparable from data collected from regulated health and wellness apps, interacting often with the same wearable sensors, and relating to the same physiological recordings and similar patient-generated interactions 4 , 5 . The EHDS proposal acknowledges three fundamental concepts that will be transformational to modern medicine, medical research and medical technology development: (i) health and data on health do not start at the clinic gate and the personal wellness category of health data describes, in intricate detail, the health of individuals; (ii) the center of gravity of health data is shifting continuously away from the clinic perimeter and towards the sofa, the pocket, the wrist and the sensor skin patch of the citizen; and (iii) if acceptable and workable approaches are found to link this data to personal EHR data, much can be learned for the understanding of diseases, developing of new approaches for early prediction and intervention in diseases and for increasing the efficiency of public health and healthcare delivery 3 , 6 , 7 .…”

“…These data, linked to later identified diseases, can be key to the development and advancement of predictive analytics, e.g., based on AI 9 – 11 . Such models are applicable to rare 12 and common diseases, either acute or chronic 3 , 6 , 7 . There is the potential for a virtuous cycle, from large-scale data sharing to large-scale provision of early and personal insights to citizens on risks, lifestyle adaptations to prevent disease, and notifications to indicate when home/clinic-based diagnostic workup is required.…”

Ultra-low power, high-data rate, fully on-chip radio frequency on-off keying receiver for internet-of-things applications

“…This often occurs in healthcare and other critical industries. Thus, it is important to establish a system that can detect errors within the least time after a trigger occurs 7 . Translating the scenario to wireless communications, it is desired to decode information with minimum latency.…”

Privacy and Regulatory Issues in Wearable Health Technology

“…Guidelines and voluntary codes of conduct developed by the private sector are concrete illustrations [10]. Despite the existence of such challenges, health wearables are an opportunity to improve healthcare systems, as these devices could become a substantial addition to everyday healthcare practice [11]. Indeed, health wearables could save lives as they act as computational systems allowing healthcare providers to adjust to patients' needs and situations; they can also be an important tool for people living in remote areas or far from hospitals or physicians.…”