Group items tagged

"Abstract Background: Wearables refer to devices that are worn by individuals. In the health care field, wearables may assist with individual monitoring and diagnosis. In fact, the potential for wearable technology to assist with health care has received recognition from health systems around the world, including a place in the strategic Long Term Plan shared by the National Health Service in England. However, wearables are not limited to specialist medical devices used by patients. Leading technology companies, including Apple, have been exploring the capabilities of wearable health technology for health-conscious consumers. Despite advancements in wearable health technology, research is yet to be conducted on wearables and empowerment. Objective: This study aimed to identify, summarize, and synthesize knowledge on how wearable health technology can empower individuals to take greater responsibility for their health and care. Methods: This study was a scoping review with thematic analysis and narrative synthesis. Relevant guidance, such as the Arksey and O'Malley framework, was followed. In addition to searching gray literature, we searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, HMIC, and Cochrane Library. Studies were included based on the following selection criteria: publication in English, publication in Europe or the United States, focus on wearables, relevance to the research, and the availability of the full text. Results: After identifying 1585 unique records and excluding papers based on the selection criteria, 20 studies were included in the review. On analysis of these 20 studies, 3 main themes emerged: the potential barriers to using wearables, the role of providers and the benefits to providers from promoting the use of wearables, and how wearables can drive behavior change. Conclusions: Considerable literature findings suggest that wearables can empower individuals by assisting with diagnosis, behavior change, and self-monitoring. However, greater adoption

"Abstract Elevated core temperature constitutes an important biomarker for COVID-19 infection; however, no standards currently exist to monitor fever using wearable peripheral temperature sensors. Evidence that sensors could be used to develop fever monitoring capabilities would enable large-scale health-monitoring research and provide high-temporal resolution data on fever responses across heterogeneous populations. We launched the TemPredict study in March of 2020 to capture continuous physiological data, including peripheral temperature, from a commercially available wearable device during the novel coronavirus pandemic. We coupled these data with symptom reports and COVID-19 diagnosis data. Here we report findings from the first 50 subjects who reported COVID-19 infections. These cases provide the first evidence that illness-associated elevations in peripheral temperature are observable using wearable devices and correlate with self-reported fever. Our analyses support the hypothesis that wearable sensors can detect illnesses in the absence of symptom recognition. Finally, these data support the hypothesis that prediction of illness onset is possible using continuously generated physiological data collected by wearable sensors. Our findings should encourage further research into the role of wearable sensors in public health efforts aimed at illness detection, and underscore the importance of integrating temperature sensors into commercially available wearables."

"If wearable devices have the ability to provide continuous sensing capabilities while accurately capturing signals, is there a role that wearable devices play in forecasting illness? What role can wearable technology play in an outbreak response at both the individual level and global level?   Join our panel with industry experts to discuss the potential for innovation in the use of wearable technologies for early detection."

"Join us in our crowdsourced effort to analyze and predict potential COVID-19 cases by donating your wearables data. " This page describes study participation opportunities: Wearables Data Study, Molecular Profiling, and Global Relief Coalition

Advances in wearable device and home blood pressure monitoring technology offer promising opportunities to characterise population health and to improve understanding of cardiovascular disease risk. These devices also allow for remote longitudinal patient monitoring, increased engagement and health literacy, and delivery of personalised behavioural interventions all while reducing overall health-care costs.1 Various health systems and start-ups seek to combine these data with clinical information from the electronic medical record, and several insurance companies are already trying to incentivise the uptake of wearable devices.2

"ABSTRACT Background: Heart rate variability (HRV), or variation in beat-to-beat intervals of the heart, is a quantitative measure of autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system. Low HRV derived from electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings is reported to be related to physical frailty in older adults. Recent advances in wearable technology offer opportunities to more easily integrate monitoring of HRV into regular clinical geriatric health assessments. However, signals obtained from ECG versus wearable photoplethysmography (PPG) devices are different, and a critical first step preceding their widespread use is to determine whether HRV metrics derived from PPG devices also relate to older adults' physical function."

Discovered by Tyler Orion: "Abstract Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are an excellent candidate for powering wearable electronics and the "Internet of Things," due to their capability of directly converting heat to electrical energy. Here, we report a high-performance wearable TEG with superior stretchability, self-healability, recyclability, and Lego-like reconfigurability, by combining modular thermoelectric chips, dynamic covalent polyimine, and flowable liquid-metal electrical wiring in a mechanical architecture design of "soft motherboard-rigid plugin modules." A record-high open-circuit voltage among flexible TEGs is achieved, reaching 1 V/cm2 at a temperature difference of 95 K. Furthermore, this TEG is integrated with a wavelength-selective metamaterial film on the cold side, leading to greatly improved device performance under solar irradiation, which is critically important for wearable energy harvesting during outdoor activities. The optimal properties and design concepts of TEGs reported here can pave the way for delivering the next-generation high-performance, adaptable, customizable, durable, economical, and eco-friendly energy-harvesting devices with wide applications."

Full Text PDF available: "Wearable device signals and home blood pressure data across age, sex, race, ethnicity, and clinical phenotypes in the Michigan Predictive Activity & Clinical Trajectories in Health (MIPACT) study: a prospective, community-based observational study"

"Summary Wearable activity trackers offer an appealing, low-cost tool to address physical inactivity. This systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (umbrella review) aimed to examine the effectiveness of activity trackers for improving physical activity and related physiological and psychosocial outcomes in clinical and non-clinical populations. Seven databases (Embase, MEDLINE, Ovid Emcare, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) were searched from database inception to April 8, 2021. Systematic reviews of primary studies using activity trackers as interventions and reporting physical activity, physiological, or psychosocial outcomes were eligible for inclusion. In total, 39 systematic reviews and meta-analyses were identified, reporting results from 163 992 participants spanning all age groups, from both healthy and clinical populations. Taken together, the meta-analyses suggested activity trackers improved physical activity (standardised mean difference [SMD] 0·3-0·6), body composition (SMD 0·7-2·0), and fitness (SMD 0·3), equating to approximately 1800 extra steps per day, 40 min per day more walking, and reductions of approximately 1 kg in bodyweight. Effects for other physiological (blood pressure, cholesterol, and glycosylated haemoglobin) and psychosocial (quality of life and pain) outcomes were typically small and often non-significant. Activity trackers appear to be effective at increasing physical activity in a variety of age groups and clinical and non-clinical populations. The benefit is clinically important and is sustained over time. Based on the studies evaluated, there is sufficient evidence to recommend the use of activity trackers."

"Most people who strap a fitness tracker to their wrist do so for motivation toward a daily step goal, or perhaps to prove their suspicions about a bad night's sleep. They don't necessarily think about ways it can help their employers help them."

Download the Mydatahelps app -- "When your heart beats faster than usual, it can mean that you're coming down with a cold, flu, coronavirus, or other viral infection. That's the conclusion of recent medical research. So wearable devices that measure your resting heart rate-made by Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, and others-might help scientists spot viral outbreaks, and also give you more insight into your own health. At Scripps Research, we've designed DETECT (Digital Engagement & Tracking for Early Control & Treatment), a study that will monitor your heart rate and allow you to record symptoms like fever or coughing."

Welcome to the Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda. This show is a window into the latest innovations in digital health and the changing dynamic between doctors and patients. Topics on the show include the emergence of personalized medicine and breakthroughs in genomics advances for aging in place using big data from wearables and sensors transparency in the medical marketplace challenges for connected health entrepreneurs The audience includes researchers, medical professionals, patient advocates, entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers, solution providers, students, journalists, and investors.

"Welcome to the Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda.  This show is a window into the latest innovations in digital health and the changing dynamic between doctors and patients. Topics on the show include the emergence of personalized medicine and breakthroughs in genomics advances for aging in place using big data from wearables and sensors transparency in the medical marketplace challenges for connected health entrepreneurs The audience includes researchers, medical professionals, patient advocates, entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers, solution providers, students, journalists, and investors."

Janice O'Connor will be testing this device at VIP Nuero-Rehab on 10/10/19 "It's not just walking - it's More Than Walking: ReWalk is a wearable robotic exoskeleton that provides powered hip and knee motion to enable individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) to stand upright, walk, turn, and climb and descend stairs*. ReWalk is the first exoskeleton to receive FDA clearance for personal and rehabilitation use in the United States."

"Although each effort is being conducted separately, all of the studies center around a common principle that by establishing a baseline set of biometrics for every study participant - including temperature, heart rate, and activity and sleep levels - researchers can detect deviations that are suggestive of illness." "Forget precision medicine. This is precision health," said Michael Snyder, Stanford University School of Medicine genetics department chair and director of genomics and personalized medicine.

Recommended by Tyler Orion - "For data from wearable technology to apps to text messaging, ownership is determined by the terms and conditions you agree to. The Apple Watch and Google Fitbit, for example, are both designed to give you access to key indicators of your health but their terms and conditions don't give you ownership of your data - and users don't know how their data are being used. This landscape is further complicated by the status of data under property law, which isn't viewed as wholly "ownable." And since current laws don't view people as the owners of their personal data, health care and service providers treat data as under their ownership. And those data are lucrative."

"What happens when people turn their everyday experience into data: an introduction to the essential ideas and key challenges of self-tracking. People keep track. In the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin kept charts of time spent and virtues lived up to. Today, people use technology to self-track: hours slept, steps taken, calories consumed, medications administered. Ninety million wearable sensors were shipped in 2014 to help us gather data about our lives. This book examines how people record, analyze, and reflect on this data, looking at the tools they use and the communities they become part of. Gina Neff and Dawn Nafus describe what happens when people turn their everyday experience-in particular, health and wellness-related experience-into data, and offer an introduction to the essential ideas and key challenges of using these technologies. They consider self-tracking as a social and cultural phenomenon, describing not only the use of data as a kind of mirror of the self but also how this enables people to connect to, and learn from, others. Neff and Nafus consider what's at stake: who wants our data and why; the practices of serious self-tracking enthusiasts; the design of commercial self-tracking technology; and how self-tracking can fill gaps in the healthcare system. Today, no one can lead an entirely untracked life. Neff and Nafus show us how to use data in a way that empowers and educates."

"Understanding how life uses time to improve health, education, and the world. Life on Earth is the living embodiment of information's value. Now that individuals generate data across time with digital trails and wearable sensors, we can begin to see how humans evolved to use time to orchestrate their bodies. Modern life often conflicts with natural time by imposing social demands that go against the rhythms of our bodies. The more we learn about time in our lives (and the lives of all organisms), the more informed can be our personal and societal choices about how we use time in this modern context for which we are not so well adapted. Ongoing projects are listed below, but are not exhaustive. While they may seem disparate, they are united in generating examples of the opportunities that incorporating biological time seems to offer across fields and across populations. I encourage any and all to reach out if they are interested in biological time and/or how data can influence your life. Student projects are welcome, as are academic and private collaborations with a goal of sharing information."