By Angus Metcalfe, Managing Director, Global Healthcare, BSI
The health service can’t “do everything for everyone”, says Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
The proposed 10 Year Health Plan, which is under consultation and due to be unveiled this spring, sets a vision for “a truly modern health service” designed to meet changing needs – a goal he suggests can be fulfilled in part by “making better use of technology”.
That means many things, of course, among them leveraging the possibility of healthcare wearables to better enable people to monitor for concerning health changes or to be cared for remotely rather than in hospital.
These devices, some now including features like ECG and blood pressure monitoring, offer real-time data on metrics like heart rate, and are evolving from niche gadgets to essential healthcare tools.
To my mind, the value of integrating wearable technology in order to respond to rising pressures on healthcare delivery is obvious.
It’s an exciting opportunity, with enormous potential to transform patient experience and relieve strain on clinicians, by reducing the need for frequent in-person visits, especially for patients of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
As BSI’s recent report exploring the topic sets out, only 6-9 per cent of physicians reported they would not consider using wearables, while ownership rates stand at up to 53 per cent in the EU, US, and China.
But integrating wearables seamlessly into clinical settings is not a given, and there are shifts in how devices are made and used that are vital.
For manufacturers, the key is ensuring that the tech is interoperable with existing healthcare systems, and that data accuracy across devices is consistent and reliable.
We know, for example, that device effectiveness can be significantly influenced by variations in things like weight: manufacturers need to be thinking about design features that are adaptable to diverse user profiles.
Clinicians, meanwhile, will only engage with wearables if they can be confident data on markers like heart rate, blood pressure or oxygen saturation is accurate and reliable.
Angus Metcalfe
At present, there is a lack of consistency in the biometric data being reported and without assurances they can trust what the wearables are telling them, clinicians will understandably be reluctant to rely on them.
Data privacy and security are also of critical importance, given this involves personal health information.
For mass uptake of wearables across the NHS and beyond, clear, evidence-based clinical guidelines on how to use wearable data in diagnosis and treatment will be critical.
There are also considerations around clinicians being overwhelmed by the amount of data, and around their legal responsibility when receiving, interpreting, and acting upon information from wearables.
Finally, this is about people – there is a vital role for communication and patient engagement here.
We can’t assume that, just because the technology is there, consumers will have the resources or understanding to make the most of it.
Your Gen Z son may be comfortable with an Oura ring, but your grandfather may not have the same digital literacy, or indeed the same level of trust.
Building that trust can come in many ways, but a key component is compliance with standards set by organizations like the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which provide assurance about product quality and safety.
In the case of wearables, they can help demonstrate that tech is sonsistently meeting the performance levels of currently accepted diagnostic tools..
As functionality expands, questions over the regulatory landscape will come to the fore.
Wearables often reside in a grey area between general consumer electronics and medical devices.
When does something stop being a fitness tracker and become a sophisticated device that falls under medical or digital therapeutics regulations?
These are thorny questions that will need to be reconciled, but either way manufacturers will need to ensure they are integrating strong compliance measures into product development processes.
Whether they are the panacea Streeting is searching for, I have no doubt wearables will increasingly be used across various stages of patient care in the coming years, from prevention to diagnoses, pre-treatment and recovery.
The challenges around usability, data management complexities, interoperability and security and privacy are not insurmountable.
By fostering information and building trust, wearables can contribute to a healthier population, lower pressure on clinicians and bring significant societal benefits.
