The trend on wearable devices is on an exponential increase.
Users learn how many calories you can burn by running up a flight of stairs, monitor your heart rate and rhythm and help you stay fit and healthy. Medical wearables and devices are used by patients use to manage chronic conditions, weight and nutrition.
Wearable and stationary devices help to improve the lives and health of users all over the world.
Patients seem to be positive about the use of these devices, and physicians should be too.
Software Advice interviewed over 450 U.S. patients who currently use medically prescribed wearable devices and the results are very positive.
Key findings
- 1 in 5 patients says their prescribed wearable device is hard to use.
- The majority of patients who are manually inputting data (87%) have recorded inaccurate data on their wearable devices.
- Of these, 85% said the error occurred because the user interface was hard to understand.
- Despite challenges, patients still see the benefits of wearables: 49% of patients cited the biggest benefit of their wearable as a better understanding of their own health.
Patients report the benefits
A majority of patients are positive with their experience, citing understanding their own health as the #1 benefit.
In addition to learning about general benefits of wearables, our survey asked patients how they felt about specific aspects of their devices.
86% of patients surveyed agreed that their wearables:
- Enable doctors to provide a higher quality of care
- Improve their health
- Improve their quality of life
One of the most significant parts of the survey we find at Medaflex, is that a majority (87%) said that at some point they have entered inaccurate data on their prescribed wearables.
The negative patient report is even more discoverable for patients who used both medically-prescribed wearables and commercial wearable devices such as a Apple or Fitbit devices.
Clearly, the commercially available devices were reported on par or exceed the prescribed devices.
Fortunately with Medaflex, wearables information will be directly and automatically incorporated into your Personal Health Information.