Wearable Technology: Useful or Just More Data?

Author: Frontiers
Published: 2018/08/11 - Updated: 2025/01/23
Publication Type: Findings
Peer-Reviewed: Yes
Topic: Home Medical Devices - Publications List

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main

Synopsis: Review looks at the booming industry of wearable medical devices from wrist trackers to smart garments and body sensors.

Why it matters: This article reviews the rapidly expanding market of wearable medical devices, including wrist trackers, smart garments, and body sensors, which are increasingly used by individuals to monitor various aspects of their physical and psychological health. Despite their popularity, the article highlights a significant gap in independent validation, noting that only about 5% of these devices have been formally tested for accuracy and reliability. The authors emphasize the ethical implications of self-diagnosis based on unverified data and caution against relying solely on these devices for health assessments, particularly in critical areas such as concussion evaluation. They advocate for comprehensive studies to assess the effectiveness of wearable technologies and their impact on users' health perceptions and behaviors - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

Wearable devices are increasingly bought to track and measure health and sports performance. A new review looks at the booming industry of measuring 'every breath you take and every move you make'*

Main Item

From the number of steps walked each day to a person's metabolic efficiency, from the quality of brain function to the quantity of oxygen inhaled while asleep. But the truth is we know very little about how well these sensors and machines work - let alone whether they deliver useful information, according to a new review published in Frontiers in Physiology.

"Despite the fact that we live in an era of 'big data,' we know surprisingly little about the suitability or effectiveness of these devices," says lead author Dr Jonathan Peake of the School of Biomedical Sciences and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. "Only five percent of these devices have been formally validated."

The authors reviewed information on devices used both by everyday people desiring to keep track of their physical and psychological health and by athletes training to achieve certain performance levels. The devices - ranging from so-called wrist trackers to smart garments and body sensors designed to track our body's vital signs and responses to stress and environmental influences - fall into six categories:

The authors investigated key issues, such as:

The authors say that technology developed for research purposes generally seems to be more credible than devices created purely for commercial reasons.

"What is critical to understand here is that while most of these technologies are not labeled as 'medical devices' per se, their very existence, let alone the accompanying marketing, conveys a sensibility that they can be used to measure a standard of health," says Peake. "There are ethical issues with this assumption that need to be addressed."

For example, self-diagnosis based on self-gathered data could be inconsistent with clinical analysis based on a medical professional's assessment. And just as body mass index charts of the past really only provided general guidelines and didn't take into account a person's genetic predisposition or athletic build, today's technology is similarly limited.

The authors are particularly concerned about those technologies that seek to confirm or correlate whether someone has sustained or recovered from a concussion, whether from sports or military service.

"We have to be very careful here because there is so much variability," says Peake. "The technology could be quite useful, but it can't and should never replace assessment by a trained medical professional."

Speaking generally again now, Peake says it is important to establish whether using wearable devices affects people's knowledge and attitude about their own health and whether paying such close attention to our bodies could in fact create a harmful obsession with personal health, either for individuals using the devices, or for family members. Still, self-monitoring may reveal undiagnosed health problems, said Peake, although population data is more likely to point to false positives.

"What we do know is that we need to start studying these devices and the trends they are creating," says Peake. "This is a booming industry."

In fact, a March 2018 study by P&S Market Research indicates the wearable market is expected to generate $48.2 billion in revenue by 2023. That's a mere five years into the future.

The authors highlight a number of areas for investigation in order to develop reasonable consumer policies around this growing industry. These include how rigorously the device/technology has been evaluated and the strength of evidence that the device/technology actually produces the desired outcomes.

"And I'll add a final question: Is wearing a device that continuously tracks your body's actions, your brain activity, and your metabolic function - then wirelessly transmits that data to either a cloud-based databank or some other storage - safe, for users? Will it help us improve our health?" asked Peake. "We need to ask these questions and research the answers."

About the Findings

The review is co-authored by Dr. Peake, who also works at Sport Performance Innovation and Knowledge Excellence, Queensland Academy of Sport in Brisbane, Australia; Dr. Graham Kerr of Movement Neuroscience and Injury Prevention Program, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; and Dr. John P. Sullivan of Clinical and Sports Consulting Services, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The research is part of a special article collection on wearable sensor technology.

* Reference: the 1983 pop/rock song by The Police, "Every Breath You Take."

Attribution/Source(s): This peer reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Frontiers and published on 2018/08/11, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For further details or clarifications, Frontiers can be contacted at frontiersin.org NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranties or endorsements related to this article.

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Cite This Page (APA): Frontiers. (2018, August 11 - Last revised: 2025, January 23). Wearable Technology: Useful or Just More Data?. Disabled World (DW). Retrieved February 17, 2025 from www.disabled-world.com/assistivedevices/medical/med-data.php

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