Wearable technology is revolutionizing healthcare by enabling continuous data collection, remote patient monitoring, and seamless integration with electronic health records. Devices such as smartwatches and fitness trackers collect real-time health data, providing a comprehensive view of a patient’s well-being. This integration enhances patient monitoring, facilitates proactive interventions, and supports personalized healthcare delivery.
The Rise of Wearable Technology in Healthcare
Wearable healthcare technology takes many forms, including smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart apparel, and medical sensors. The wearable medical devices market is expected to be worth $156 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 16.6% between 2023 and 2032.1 Nearly a third of all Americans currently use a wearable healthcare device.2
Utilizing application programming interfaces, wearable devices provide seamless data integration with multiple apps that deliver detailed information to both the patient and provider. Over 80% of medical device users say they would share their data with a healthcare provider, facilitating efficient use of these devices at touchpoints throughout their healthcare journey.2
Integrating Wearable Data With EHRs
The convergence of wearable technology and EHRs offers numerous benefits. Wearables capture continuous data on vital signs, physical activity, and sleep patterns, offering a holistic view of a patient’s health beyond clinical settings. This continuous monitoring enables healthcare providers to detect early signs of potential health issues and make informed decisions. Real-time data from wearables also allows physicians to monitor patients remotely. Remote patient monitoring is especially valuable for patients with chronic conditions. Continuous monitoring facilitates timely interventions, reduces hospital visits, and improves patient outcomes.
Integrating wearable data into EHRs ensures that health records are up to date and accurate, reducing the risk of errors associated with manual data entry. Though wearable devices do have a margin of error, they’re likely more precise than the patient’s memory or personal knowledge of their activity level, sleep schedule, and heart rate. This accuracy enables more effective diagnosis and treatment planning.
Enhancing Patient Monitoring and Data Collection
Wearable devices significantly improve patient monitoring and data collection, as they provide continuous tracking of health metrics that can alert healthcare providers to anomalies. With access to more frequent data collection and real-time data, healthcare providers can more accurately identify potential health issues, allowing for proactive interventions that prevent complications.
It’s usually not reasonable to expect a patient to visit the office for a daily electrocardiogram, but wearables can deliver readings multiple times a day over the course of weeks or months. This form of data collection offers more privacy, as it takes place unobtrusively over the course of the patient’s regular day. The Apple Heart Study, presented in 2019, revealed that the Apple Watch and Heart app matched ECG readings 84% of the time, demonstrating that the wearable can accurately identify atrial fibrillation.3
Driving Proactive and Personalized Healthcare Delivery
The integration of wearable technology into healthcare systems drives proactive and personalized care. The massive amount of data collected by wearable devices may read like a foreign language to the average end user, but doctors can decode this information and translate it into effective interventions.
Wearables also empower patients to take a more active role in their own healthcare. These devices provide patients with ready access to their health data, fostering a sense of ownership and encouraging proactive health management. Patients have instant access to details such as their activity level and step count. Wearables can even provide reminders to get up and move throughout the day, while associated apps can translate wearable data into comprehensible assessments to drive progress and increase accountability.
Patients may also use wearables to decrease the frequency of healthcare visits and increase the effectiveness of more convenient telehealth monitoring. According to a survey by a healthcare solutions company, more than 55% of respondents are willing to use a wearable health monitoring device at home, and 64% would do so if it meant they could reduce their in-person trips to a healthcare facility.4
Shifting the burden of care from the provider to the individual puts the responsibility on the patient, the only person who can truly control their participation in and adherence to healthcare interventions. This benefits the healthcare facility as well by reducing workloads and minimizing costs.
Position Your Organization for Future Success
To leverage the benefits of wearable technology, healthcare organizations must develop robust systems to integrate wearable data into EHRs and invest in training programs to equip healthcare professionals with the skills to interpret and utilize this data effectively. Stringent data security protocols are essential to protect patient information and comply with regulatory standards.
Effectively integrating wearable data into the healthcare system is a labor-intensive shift in the initial phases, but it can improve the effectiveness of long-term interventions and ultimately ease the strain on overburdened healthcare systems. Maintaining proper healthcare IT staffing throughout the shift will streamline the process and enable faster and more effective results.
Find Smart Staffing Solutions
Medix offers expert assistance with healthcare IT staffing. We provide skilled technology talent at almost half the hourly rate of traditional consultant solutions. We offer expert vetting and validation to ensure you get only the best talent for your project so you can accurately leverage the data from wearables in your EHRs and revolutionize how your healthcare providers do business.
References:
- Trishita Deb, “Wearable Medical Devices Statistics 2024 By User, Usage and Technology,” Market.us, March 26, 2024, https://media.market.us/wearable-medical-devices-statistics/.
- “Study reveals wearable device trends among U.S. adults,” National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, June 15, 2023, https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2023/study-reveals-wearable-device-trends-among-us-adults.
- Alice Park, “Here’s How Well the Apple Watch Can Detect Heart Problems,” Time, November 14, 2019, https://time.com/5727608/apple-watch-heart-study/.
- Heather Landi, “Patients will use health wearables to reduce trips to the doctor: survey,” FIERCE Healthcare, June 25, 2019, https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/patients-will-use-health-wearables-to-reduce-trips-to-doctor-survey.
