Wearable technology has sparked a fundamental shift in our everyday lives. Technological advancements in relation to health and fitness are incentivising us to adopt healthier lifestyles by making us more aware of our own health behaviours, such as how much exercise we do on a daily basis. Wearable technology has played a big part in this shift by providing us with data and trends in accordance with our own health and encouraging us to make improved choices, such as upping our step-count, being more consistent with our exercise activity, and so on. The question is – is this intelligent enough?
How can the data behind these wearables support us to better our long-term health and wellbeing, whilst supporting healthcare professionals to prioritise prevention and early detection? Josh Meadows, Head of Commercial, Priority Digital Health, explores further…
Smartwatches: the evolution
The number of connected wearable tech devices around the world has nearly doubled from 526 million in 2017 to 929 million in 2021, demonstrating a huge demand for smartwatches. This figure especially increased throughout the pandemic when 64% of people put their fitness routines, as well as their mental health, as a top priority. And so, there’s no doubt that technology has completely transformed our lives. Whilst in many ways we have grown accustomed to blaming technology for making us lazier, there has been an influx of gadgets surfacing that are specifically designed to encourage us to be more active.
The first Fitbit was launched in 2007 and was a real turning point for the potential of health technologies. It primarily served to count your daily steps, but has since developed to integrate with other devices and give a more well-rounded view of our entire fitness activity and set targets based on this. What we’ve seen over the years is a huge development in the capability of wearable technology and its impact on individual motivation.
However, as it stands, whilst being significantly useful in many ways, smartwatches have their limitations. The data that the wearer is given is personal to them, but this is merely the first basic step in someone’s health and wellbeing journey. Health and wellbeing isn’t just about hitting targets; it requires an understanding of the bigger picture to make the right health decisions on a day-to-day basis. For instance, data around exercise performance or oxygen saturation – or information on an individual’s sleeping patterns – can be informative, but without understanding what it actually means, it remains raw data. Therefore, there is a huge opportunity for businesses to interpret the data and coach, advise and support individuals to ensure their health and wellbeing routines are a more holistic reflection of what their health care needs really are.
Data and beyond
As health systems around the world struggle to keep up with ageing populations, rising obesity levels and an increasing number of long-term conditions (such as type 2 diabetes) and comorbidities, combined with an increased focus on mental health, the use of personal health care technology for patients is being introduced, with various pilots involving wearable tech already being trialled.
Developers of wearable devices and healthcare professionals have a significant opportunity to align and integrate such tech into a holistic, data-driven healthcare ecosystem that prioritises prevention and early detection. It will help practitioners and individuals gain more insight into their health and wellness by strengthening partnerships with healthcare and wellbeing companies, enabling data value to be realised, and providing them with health and wellness advice, support, and self-help courses.
Technology is paving the way for a transformation of health and wellbeing, and a wearable device can become a diagnostic tool through the use of sensors and algorithms that measure things unobtrusively as people go about their daily lives. We are already starting to see developments take place, for example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based apps derived from wrist data are providing people with personalised advice about what to eat for lunch and when to go for a walk, and interactive apps with clinical evidence are being prescribed as medicines for a variety of ailments.
Conclusion
Wearable tech is expected to continue to grow at an exponential rate, both in terms of the number of people adopting healthier lifestyles, and in terms of the amount and breadth of health data that smartwatches can access. Whilst the wearable is the pretty shiny physical thing to market, it is clear that data is the true asset in this market. Making the data that is collected from the wearable technology meaningful, personable, and insightful on an individual user basis will be the key in making long lasting changes to personal health prevention.
Additionally, as far as we can tell, the advancement of Artificial Intelligence and interoperability in healthcare will increasingly impact the relevancy of wearable products. Apps will become increasingly sophisticated, and devices will become a means of connecting individuals, health and care professionals, as well as providing a source of educational and self-help tools.
