Healthcare Wearable Devices
- Jessica Patel
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
By: Jessica Patel (PA student at D’Youville University, Cohort 7 AHEC Scholar)
Healthcare wearable devices such as the Apple Watch, Oura Ring, and Fitbit are becoming increasingly common in everyday patient care. They offer real-time information on things like heart rate, sleep quality, physical activity, and sometimes irregular heart rhythms or oxygen levels. As these technologies advance, they give patients a new opportunity to be more involved in their own health. Many people feel more engaged and motivated when they can see their progress or notice patterns in their daily habits. This makes wearables helpful tools for encouraging preventive care and spotting potential health concerns early. For conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or mood disorders, wearables may also help patients recognize triggers and make timely changes.
Emerging research shows that wearable sensors can provide meaningful health information that goes far beyond counting steps. Buchman et al. (2020) found that when wearable devices measure different types of movement, those measurements can predict a range of important health outcomes in older adults, such as physical decline, mobility problems, memory issues, and even risk of death. Their work shows that small details in how people move each day – like how they turn, walk, or transition from sitting to standing – may act as early warning signs of declining health. This supports a more proactive approach to care, where clinicians may eventually use everyday movement data to identify at-risk patients before symptoms become obvious.
However, the usefulness of wearable data depends on whether both patients and clinicians understand what the numbers actually mean. A review by George et al. (2023) explains that data are only helpful if people know how to interpret them and how to respond. Without proper education, patients may mistake normal changes in their data for something serious or overlook patterns that need attention. As a PA, you play an important role in educating patients – explaining what their wearable metrics measure, helping them understand trends over time, and guiding them on how to use these insights in a realistic and evidence-based way. This education is essential for wearables to serve as true health tools rather than simple “fitness gadgets.”
For PAs, the growth of wearable technology has meaningful effects on patient care. Wearable data can enhance clinic visits by offering long-term, objective trends that support the information patients share during appointments. PAs can use these data to guide decision-making, personalize lifestyle recommendations, or better evaluate symptoms like palpitations, fatigue, or sleep problems. When used carefully, wearable information can strengthen the patient-provider relationship and help create more tailored treatment plans across many specialties, including primary care, cardiology, endocrinology, geriatrics, and mental health.
Still, important limitations remain. The accuracy of consumer wearables varies widely, especially for sensitive measurements such as oxygen saturation or continuous blood pressure. Many devices also use proprietary, or closed, algorithms, which means clinicians cannot always see how the data are calculated. Sensor performance can also change based on how patients wear or use the device (Canali et al., 2022). Incorrect readings – such as false arrhythmia alerts – can cause unnecessary worry and medical visits, while false reassurance can delay needed care. For PAs, the challenge is helping patients stay excited about the potential of wearables while setting realistic expectations about what the devices can reliably show.
Ultimately, healthcare wearables offer real promise for improving preventive care, patient engagement, and early detection of health changes. For PAs, they provide an opportunity to bring real-world health data into personalized care plans and encourage patients to take an active role in their well-being. However, these benefits can only be achieved by addressing accuracy issues, helping patients interpret their data, and emphasizing consistent patient education. By making sure patients understand what their wearable data mean and how to use them safely, PAs can help ensure that wearable technology truly supports better, more effective healthcare.
References:
Buchman, A. S., Dawe, R. J., Leurgans, S. E., Curran, T. A., Truty, T., Yu, L., Barnes, L. L., Hausdorff, J. M., & Bennett, D. A. (2019). Different combinations of mobility metrics derived from a wearable sensor are associated with distinct health outcomes in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 75(6), 1176–1183.
Canali, S., Schiaffonati, V., & Aliverti, A. (2022). Challenges and recommendations for wearable devices in Digital Health: Data Quality, interoperability, health equity, fairness. PLOS Digital Health, 1(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000104
George, A. S. H., Shahul, A., & George, Dr. A. S. (2023). Wearable Sensors: A New Way to Track Health and Wellness. Partners Universal International Innovation Journal, 1(4), 15–34. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8260879