ViTAL Chats: Digital Health Series — Wearable Technology
Edited by Heenal Marfatia
Welcome back to ViTAL Chats, my name is Thy Nguyen, the host for today’s podcast. I hope you had a chance to listen to our Eboard highlight series and learn more about ViTAL. For this academic year, we will be centering our speaker events around digital health. Today’s episode will discuss how wearable technology has influenced healthcare.
Wearable devices started out as effective little gadgets that could count how many steps you took or miles you ran or calories you burned. They were great conversation starters, but only a few people took them seriously. Then suddenly, they were everywhere. Wearable technology has scaled faster than anyone could have imagined. It’s being used not just by consumers, but healthcare providers and insurance companies, and it is changing the dynamics of the healthcare industry.
Wearable technology has various roles in healthcare and takes monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment to a new level. One of the most popular applications is physical activity tracking. Some of the most original forms of wearable fitness trackers are wristbands equipped with sensors to keep track of consumers’ physical activity and heart rate. They provide users with health and fitness recommendations by syncing to various smartphone apps. These devices are stimulus mechanisms to increase the consumers’ activity, but according to Wearable Technology Application in Healthcare: A Literature Review, several studies have shown that they still have limitations as an outcome measurement method. Dr. John Rachlin, a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, shared in our Wearable Technology in Healthcare event that Fitbit, Apple smartwatches, and other wearable devices are not FDA approved for medical use. They only serve as a technology to track physical activities.
Another great application of wearable technology in healthcare is disease management. Some devices have been developed to monitor cardiovascular and enable mobile health applications in cardiac patients. They can also record ECG signals and heart rate variability. In addition, wearable trackers can detect hypertension with physiological signals. They have the potential to improve hypertension control and medication adherence through easier logging of repeated blood pressure measurements, better connectivity with health-care providers, and medication reminder alerts. Moreover, wearable technology can effectively manage diabetes. They are helping the diabetic community to take great strides toward truly personalized, real-time, data-driven management of this chronic disease. One well-known example is the wearable artificial endocrine pancreas for diabetes management, which is a closed-loop system formed by a wearable glucose monitor and an implanted insulin pump.
The last application of wearable technology in healthcare I want to highlight is health maintenance. Several devices are developed to alter negative behavior of the users. For example, Pavlok is a wristband designed to help the consumers to remove their bad habits by giving them a harmless electric shock every time they do the behavior. This was developed into what is called aversion therapy, which is sometimes used to treat addiction and compulsive behavior. Some other wearable devices can detect human physiology status, such as body temperature. Embr is a watch-like device that acts as a cooler or heater that leverages quirks in human physiology to control how your body perceives temperature. It works by reducing or increasing the temperature of the users’ wrist a few fractions of a degree per second for a couple seconds at a time. Embr is especially helpful for women who are experiencing menopause since the device can make hot flash more bearable. Elizabeth Gazda, the CEO of Embr Labs, shared in our Wearable Technology in Healthcare event the inequity in the healthcare system for women. Before Obamacare, women had higher insurance premiums when compared to their male counterparts. While women tended to interact more with healthcare providers, either due to their own healthcare issues or as the primary caretaker in the family, they are the same group to also have to pay more. Gazda also pointed out that tampons are still considered medical devices and are not tax-free. She hopes that Embr Labs can help close the inequality gap by providing a new device to help improve women’s health and wellness.
Even though wearable technology has a great impact on healthcare, it is still in its prototype stages. Issues such as privacy concerns in wearable technology still need to be addressed to enhance the usability and functions of these devices for practical use. The consumers of wearable devices are often contributing their health information to a centralized database maintained by the companies. Unfortunately, their privacy policies are vague and ever-changing, with platitudes that begin with “We respect your privacy” and end with “We may share your information with third parties…” Moreover, health data such as the number of heartbeats, steps, and sleep history tracked are not formally considered Protected Health Information, so they are not subject to HIPAA regulations. Therefore, some companies can legally sell the consumers’ health information to third party vendors.
While Wearable Technology has both its perks and drawbacks, it is safe to say that these technologies and devices are disrupting the healthcare industry. We hope that this episode has taught you a little more about wearable technology and if you are interested in learning more, please watch the recording of our live Digital Health Speaker Event, where we brought in speakers from the Wearable Technology realm.
Thank you for listening. To learn more about Vital and stay updated with our events, you can follow us on social media, @vitalnortheastern, and check for updates on our website, www.northeastern.edu/vital.
Listen to ViTAL Chats at: https://soundcloud.com/user-254266302/digital-health-series-wearable-technology
