Fitness Wearables Have the Power of Preventive Care (If Doctors Would Use Them)

Fitness wearables are booming. Every company has their own take on the fitness watch or smartband, and each one provides a wealth of information on your health trends. The only people that aren’t utilizing them are medical professionals.

Todd Hixon of Forbes discussed Dr. Robert Glattner’s recent post on digital health wearables. Glattner believes these wearables can extend beyond being accessories for the already fit to help the treat the chronically sick and act as a preventative measure for physicians. But these devices lack the design and systems in place to cater to these people, though, it could be a lucrative market for physicians and manufacturers to benefit.

Daniel Garrett, Health Information Technology Practice Leader, PwC US explained:

“Digitally enabled care is no longer nice to have, it’s fundamental for delivering high quality care. Just as the banking and retail sectors today use data and technology to improve efficiency, raise quality, and expand services, healthcare must either do the same or lose patients to their competitors who do so.”

In Glattner’s recent post on Forbes, his excitement over the advancement of digital health wearables oozes off the page. It’s more than about counting steps, there are heart-rate monitors, temperature readings, and so on. But in order for these wearables to be of any use is for physicians to take advantage of them in outpatient cases.

Through wearables, Hixon argues that getting sick in the first place could be prevented. We often don’t go to the doctor until something is wrong. But a constant communication through these stat trackers could help bridge a doorway to initiating virtualized medicine. Doctors would be better equipped with the right data to help their patients and keep them health, rather than seeing them when it’s already too late.