Smartwatches can save lives. It certainly did the trick for my colleague, Nirave Gondhia, who detailed his journey of having a heart attack at the age of 33, and how the Apple Watch helped him on a path of recovery, even with emergency needs.
Unfortunately, not every adopter is using smartwatches the way they are intended to assist. As per a survey by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center only a quarter of Americans who use a smartwatch for health tracking share the wearable data with their doctor.
“If patients are monitoring their blood pressure at home and notice it’s been going up over time, they may want to discuss it with their doctor sooner rather than waiting for their annual visit,” explains Dr. Laxmi Mehta, an expert in cardiology and heart diseases. “Or they may capture some irregular heart rhythms on their devices, like atrial fibrillation, much sooner than would be diagnosed at the doctor’s office.”
The findings are rather surprising, as people rely on smartwatches for keeping an eye on biomarkers such as heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep, among others. Notably, smartwatches emerged as the most popular device for users who monitor their health and wellness stats using an external device in the survey.
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Mehta, who also serves as the Sarah Ross Soter Endowed Chair for Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research, notes that smartwatches have become an essential part of daily health assessment for people dealing with heart-related issues.
She further pointed out that sharing the heart activity data with a doctor is a “critical step,” one that is crucial to deciding whether proper medical intervention is needed.
Smartwatches are now capable of measuring more than just the heart rate. The Apple Watch, for example, also lets users perform an ECG and can give them a warning about irregular heart activity patterns that could be a sign of Atrial Fibrillation (AFib).
Smartwatches made by the likes of Fitbit, Apple, and Samsung regularly appear in research papers, paving the way for new breakthroughs on a regular basis.
Earlier this month, a team relied on data collected by Fitbit smartwatches from over five thousand users and deduced that the biomarkers collected by smartwatches can be used to predict psychiatric illnesses and even link them to genetic factors.
They can also assist in emergency situations. For example, the Apple Watch offers a Medical ID system that shows important information — such as age, blood type, allergies, and medical condition right on the lock screen — helping emergency responders make the best decision in critical situations.
