Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Other Company's Wearable Technology: How Are They Affecting Health, Fitness Specialists in Interacting with Patients?

Now that people have direct access to technology and their devices, they have the opportunity to take their health and fitness directly into their hands, in their smartwatch, be it Apple, Samsung or Fitbit.

As described in Techpluto, wearable technology, a trend that we had never heard of a few years ago, has turned out to be a "foreseeable sensation" as a result of rapid digitization.

People today use and trust wearable technologies like the smartwatch to proactively manage both their health and illness, helping them meet their specific needs, be it physical or medical.

When Tim Cook took the stage at an event in 2014 to announce the much-anticipated, long-debated Apple Watch, he described the product as a "comprehensive health and fitness device," according to The Verge report.

His announcement set the standard for what the company thought of wearable devices and smartwatches, that is, they were designed not just for fun and timekeeping, not just for notifying the wearer of incoming calls and text messages, but essentially for health.

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(Photo: Solen Feyissa at Unsplash)
In 2014, Tim Cook claimed that their "Apple Watches could be lifesaving".

Wearable technology for cardiology

After four years, Cook named Apple's smartwatch as a health device; he was back for a bigger claim, namely that their "Apple Watches could be lifesaving".

About five years ago cardiologists began to see how many of their patients were bringing in heart rate data from their smartwatches.

According to a 2019 report by Harvard Health Publishing, smartwatches with special sensors can record an electrical signature record, electrocardiogram, or EKG of the heart and warn the wearer if they detect an irregular rhythm.

In the fall of that year, the FDA approved Apple for its EKG sensor and an app that includes an algorithm to detect atrial fibrillation, or atrial fibrillation, the most typical cardiac arrhythmia.

Smartwatches for sport and fitness

Fitness and fitness-related information, including step counts, was among the earliest data available for wearables. However, this The Verge report stated that it was often disconnected from context. The main goal was to hit a specific target, and that specific target could often be arbitrary.

Liz Joy, sports medicine specialist and senior medical director of wellness and nutrition at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, said people would say, "I try to take 10,000 steps a day." Then she asked them where she thought such a recommendation came from, and nine times out of ten they have no idea, she said.

However, Joy stated that there is nothing wrong with taking 10,000 steps a day; it's just, she explained, that people don't "need that many to get health benefits".

The specialist also sees the widespread use of wearables as fitness trackers in many cases, for example for patients with obsessive-compulsive behavior or eating disorders. She said, "it's more of a curse than a blessing," with the said cohort.

For related information on the effectiveness of wearable technology, see the following Newsy YouTube video:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyCdHV822Vo[/embed]

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Check out more wearables news and information in Science-Times.

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