Integrating Wearable Technology into Patient Care: A Guide for Functional Medicine Practitioners

Wearable technology is an upcoming trend in healthcare. From its origins in the fitness tracker industry to portable EKGs for home use and sophisticated health tracking systems that can monitor oxygen levels and other advanced health markers, wearable technology is poised to shape the future of the healthcare landscape. 

This article discusses how healthcare providers, especially in functional medicine, can integrate wearable technology into patient care to improve health outcomes while monitoring patient health metrics.

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Understanding Wearable Technology in Healthcare

Wearable technology in healthcare takes many forms. Fitness trackers were one of the first forms of wearable technology to be adopted by the public. Newer technology includes smart watches capable of monitoring heart rate and oxygen levels, continuous glucose monitors capable of helping guide diabetic therapies, and EKG monitors that can be worn to give the healthcare provider insight into heart rhythms in real time.[1]  These technologies offer new opportunities to get unprecedented insights into your patient’s health.

The Role of Wearable Technology in Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is governed by the principles of holistic person-centered care, which recognizes the body as a self-regulating organism that strives to find balance. It uses evidence-based care and focuses on preventative care.[11] Wearable technology fits in well with these principles by allowing more insight into the patient’s health status than a single visit.

Benefits of Wearable Technology for Patient Care

Wearable technology has many benefits for patient care, from personalizing patient care to improving patient engagement to helping to detect problems early.

Enhanced Monitoring: 

Wearable technology allows you to monitor your patient’s vital signs continuously. This technology may allow you and the patient to catch changes in health conditions more quickly and in between office visits. 

Patients may be able to identify trends concerning their monitored parameters. This can help them make an appointment to address health concerns before they become emergencies.[14] 

Evidence suggests that monitoring patients remotely may decrease hospital admissions.[13]

Improved Patient Engagement: 

Patients have become more technologically savvy over the past few years, and studies suggest that they are willing to share this information with their healthcare providers.[2] 

Viewing this continuous information can let the healthcare provider see trends in patient behaviors, such as days when activity levels are higher or lower. 

The healthcare provider may want to congratulate patients on days when they were particularly active or help them identify challenges when they were less active. 

The information can also help the patient be more engaged in their health. The data may motivate them to develop healthier behaviors.[12]

Personalized Treatment Plans: 

Trends in patient numbers, such as blood sugar, can allow the healthcare provider to adjust treatment plans. This may help improve patient health more quickly and improve patient outcomes.[12]

Early Detection: 

If patients develop concerning health trends, it may be possible to identify and intervene more quickly. Continuous data fosters this quick intervention and makes the healthcare process more efficient. 

Selecting Wearable Technology for Your Practice

Deciding which wearable technology to incorporate into a functional medicine practice can be challenging. A recent article in Heliyon proposed a step-by-step approach to selecting wearable devices.[9] Some of the steps that the authors propose include: 

• A device that allows passive continuous monitoring for a minimum of a week, except cleaning or charging, can minimize the likelihood of missing data due to patient noncompliance.
• Technology becomes obsolete quickly, and device manufacturers may discontinue or stop supporting devices, so it is important to ensure that the devices are up to date. Patients may also not be willing to wear a device that is bulky, invasive, or interferes with daily life.
• Accuracy and reliability are also important criteria. Inaccurate or unreliable data can hinder healthcare decisions rather than help them. Many devices have validation data available through device manufacturer publications. 
• Ease of use is also essential. The best data comes from a device worn continuously, so factors such as ease of interface, battery life, and setup and maintenance must be considered when selecting devices.
• Cost is another significant factor to consider. The cost may include the device's initial cost and any subscriptions, licensing fees, costs of building an interface with electronic health records, or data storage fees.

These factors may be a framework for determining which devices are best for your functional medicine practice.

Integrating Wearable Data into Functional Medicine Practice

Integrating the data from wearable technology into your practice can be as challenging as choosing which device to use. For the data to be useful, you’ll need to have a way to collect the data from the patients. Many wearable technology devices have software that allows for data collection. Some devices may transmit directly into EHR software for the healthcare provider to review. 

Other devices will allow the patient to print data for review. Once the data has been delivered to the healthcare provider, it must be analyzed and interpreted. Regular visits with the patient, whether virtual or in person, can give the provider time to review the data and integrate it into the patient care plan. 

Addressing Challenges and Limitations

Like any new technology, wearable technology is not without its challenges. A 2022 study in Plos Digital Health identified four areas of concern for integrating wearable technology into healthcare practice, but there may also be other concerns.[3]

• Data Quality: Creating a person-centered treatment plan is difficult without accurate, reliable data. Another data-related concern is data overload. Healthcare providers are becoming increasingly burned out, and too much data can contribute to burnout, which may lead to negative patient outcomes.[6] Patient privacy is another concern whenever data is involved.
• Medical Conditions: Wearable technology used to detect and predict disease can overestimate medical conditions.[6] Over-predicting conditions is another risk of wearable technology. 
• Health literacy: Health equity and fairness are additional challenges with wearable technology. Patients have different levels of health literacy and access to wearable devices. Minority groups historically marginalized may be more reluctant to trust wearable devices as a healthcare tool.[6]
• Expectations: Patients may also have unrealistic expectations of what information can be obtained through wearable technology. Patient education is one way to help address both the health literacy and expectations issues.

Educating Patients on the Use of Wearable Technology

Patients should be educated on reasonable expectations for their health conditions and how to review and understand their data. Patients also need to be educated as to the limitations of the devices they are using. Wearable device data may serve as a clue to look for a broader problem but may not provide all of the information necessary to make the diagnosis. Patients need to understand that additional testing may be needed.[8]

Future Trends in Wearable Technology and Patient Care

Wearable technology can provide increasingly advanced biometric data. Continuous glucose monitoring is already providing real-time information for diabetic patients and can alert patients to blood sugars that are dangerously high or low. Mental health and wellness monitoring is also being implemented through wearable technology.[7] 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are upcoming technologies that may help wearable technology further personalize healthcare recommendations, predict medical problems, and allow for earlier intervention.

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Key Takeaways

• Wearable technology is an upcoming trend in medicine that has the potential to improve patient outcomes.
• Enhanced monitoring, improved patient engagement, earlier disease detection, and more personalized patient care are potential benefits of wearable technology.
• Data overload, patient privacy protection, and unequal healthcare literacy are potential challenges.
• The future of wearable technology may utilize technologies such as machine learning to further improve patient care.