The Required Shift in How Patients View Wearables

This post is sponsored by Samsung Business. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We’ve all seen the explosive growth that’s occurred in the wearables market. The most extraordinary part of the wearables explosion is that the majority of wearables growth has been in the healthcare space. The problem we now see in healthcare is that most people don’t look at wearables as a disease management tool as much as they see them as lifestyle tools. This was described really well by Megan Williams on the Samsung Insights blog: Perhaps the most challenging part of meeting that desire [Physician Access to Patients’ Lives and Health] is the fact that patients mostly view wearables as an aid in lifestyle improvement instead of disease management. The task of helping patients understand that wearables are about much more than weight loss will fall squarely on the shoulders of providers. Patients have traditionally shown a preference for lifestyle apps including fitness, nutrition and heart rate aids, and have been much slower to adopt disease management tools, even as chronic disease remains a burden on healthcare as a whole. Encouraging the use of a broader range of wearables, digital tools and apps will be a challenge for any provider. Changing habits and perceptions is always a challenge. However, it’s also a great opportunity. No one would argue that today’s wearables are more than novelty items that may have some impact on your lifestyle (fitness, n...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Digital Health Digital Therapies Healthcare HealthCare IT mHealth Clinically Relevant Data Fitbit Health Data Healthcare Wearables Sleep Apnea Wearables Source Type: blogs