WEARABLES - INSIDABLES - IOT - CONNECTED DEVICES - QUANTIFIEDSELF

It’s been repeatedly stressed by healthcare practitioners how beyond a balanced diet and exercise, getting sufficient sleep is vital to our health and wellbeing.

There are wearables that can already track our daily activities such as heart rate when we exercise and even the number of steps we have walked that day and the distance. In addition to that, some wearables can monitor your sleep patterns.

But how accurate are they and are they good for you?

Sleep specialists at Rush University Lab in Chicago reported an increase in patients who were complaining about sleep disorders. However, it was observed that those who wore wearables that tracked their sleep started to develop an obsession over getting enough sleep.

As most people are aware, eight hours is what is commonly referred to as the “right amount of sleep.” And because of this, people who tracked that they were getting less than that started to develop anxiety over not getting enough sleep, and the strain resulted in disrupted sleep.

Furthermore, sleep trackers cannot differentiate between light and day and could be tracking the wearer as asleep when they are in fact just resting. Ultimately, it has been observed that sleep trackers aren’t always accurate.

Remember that sleep trackers like other activity trackers are wearable digital devices that measure, amongst other things, your arm movement with a detector called an accelerometer. So it is entirely possible that the sleep tracker is indicating you are asleep when you are in fact, not.

If you are struggling with a sleeping disorder such as insomnia, a sleep tracker will only tell you how much sleep you didn’t get and is not sensitive or sophisticated enough to diagnose the problem. Ultimately, it may keep people from seeking the medical attention they need to fully diagnose if they have a sleeping disorder that may be detrimental to their overall health.

Furthermore, those who are tracking that they are getting a full eight hours of sleep may be misled that they have no sleep disorder, when in fact, they do. Their tracker may indicate they slept for eight hours, but it will not always accurately track if they were restless or had brief moments of awakening.

The bottom line is that too many people may be relying too much on the numbers that their wearables are recording and not on the actual quality of their sleep. Are they waking up refreshed and feeling restored? Are they energised or did they wake up more tired than before they slept because their sleep was restless and disruptive?

Wearable technology has evolved beyond fitness bracelets and now enables patients to receive healthcare services on the go.

Similar to fitness bracelets and apps, sensors embedded in wearable devices record patients’ daily activities, and companion apps display personal healthcare data that’s programmed to respond to each patient’s specific conditions. While in operation, these companion apps transmit a patient’s data to his or her medical team, keeping them informed and the patient connected.

Below are three wearable technology devices and apps that take patient care to the street, monitoring the patient’s vital signs, medication and even pain levels.

HealthPatch MD
The sensors in the HealthPatch MD disposable patch, when adhered to the patient’s chest, can track a patient’s vital signs and body position to monitor and alert caregivers for concerns. The ECG sensors track heart rate, heart rate variability, temperature and respiration, while the accelerator sensor monitors physical activity, as well as records body position, and alerts a patient’s medical team if he or she falls.

Because it collects and streams your information in real time, the resulting record shows how each of a patient’s separate body systems are functioning in context with all the others. Bluetooth technology connects the patch to the related app that transmits the data to a patient’s medical office.

Helius
Some patients struggle with remember when to take their medications and how much they should take, but they may find the Helius smart sensor pills alleviates some of the medication guesswork. Swallowing one of these digital pills places a sensor in a patient’s stomach to register when and how often medications are taken. In the stomach, gastric fluids complete the electrical circuit within the pill and the sensor then alerts the companion smartphone app  when it detects the presence of the medicine. Helius sensors can also track related physiological activity, such has how the body responds to treatment.

In July, Helius pills were cleared by the FDA to be used as an aid in the measurement of medication adherence but faces privacy challenges when combined with other medications.

Quell Relief
Chronic knee pain affects 14% of Americans over the age of 24, and that number rises to 34% over the age of 65, but many refuse to take pain medication to relieve it. The Quell Relief knee brace may provide relief to knee pain sufferers, as it stimulates sensory nerves, which carry neural pulses to a patient’s brain. These neural pulses block pain signals in your body.

The product looks and acts like a standard knee brace, but has a small electrode on the inside. After calibration to your particular pain tolerance, the device delivers neural pulses over time. The Quell app keeps the record of your therapy over time and can also monitor your sleep quality.