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next-level health: wearables and apps redefining access to health care
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one study from havard observed that wearing a tracker increased your activity by about 1,200 daily steps or 50 extra minutes a week
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the most prevalent examples of wearable devices are the ever-present step counters, health monitors, fitbits, garmins, and apple watches. i like to run and bike, so i have a garmin, but do these things have an effect on our health? turns out yes!
one study from havard observed that wearing a tracker increased your activity by about 1,200 daily steps or 50 extra minutes a week, which is the same amount several other studies have linked to a longer life.
they can also be used to detect problems, such as in the apple heart study, where over 400,000 participants were studied to detect atrial fibrillation, leading to the apple watch becoming the first digital health product certified by the fda to be used in clinical studies. another wearable detecting problems you are starting to see more of are continuous glucose monitors, like abbot’s freestyle libre for diabetics. interestingly, non-diabetics have started buying continuous glucose monitors, but doctors warn that it probably isn’t helpful.
today, almost 1 billion people use smart wearables daily. people like data.
wearable health innovation is more than watches
innovative tech wearables extend far beyond the apple watches of the world. canada actually has a vibrant and exciting health tech ecosystem centered in mars discovery district, and a few companies that i really like are e-sight, steadiwear, and muse.
e-sight
e-sight is amazing, it actually gives people with low vision and legal blindness the power to see! the glasses are designed with a camera that captures what the wearer is looking at and presents it to their peripheral vision which is often still intact. patients with eye conditions including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and stargardt’s disease that have visual acuity from 20/60 to 20/800 may actually achieve 20/20 vision through the use of the glasses!
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steadiwear
similarly, another assistive technology that can change people’s lives, steadiwear, has developed a glove that allows essential tremor patients to better take care of themselves, “steadying” their hand to eat, drink, write, and other everyday functions.
“i see steadiwear’s novel stabilization device as a revolutionary solution for those suffering from hand tremors with no side effects or high upfront costs. alternative therapies, like wearables, are the future and they will fill in the gap by providing a reliable and accessible solution that improves quality of life.” – emile maamary, co-founder of steadiwear
muse
an example that’s closer to home for many of us would be muse, an eeg powered headband and accompanying app for people who struggle with sleep and stress. muse has been shown to improve sleep and increase relaxation in many patients who have used it. in fact, it’s been used in over 200 published studies, including one from the mayo clinic , where the doctors themselves used muse to help relax and reduce their stress levels.
“with muse we were able to take eeg technology out of the hospital and make it affordable and accessible to everyone, giving people the power to track and improve their sleep and brain health with clinical grade tools, right in their own homes” – ariel garten founder of interaxon and creator of muse.
technology rooted in clinical evidence and access to our doctors
it’s important for the products to be backed by science and have good clinical evidence. one of the biggest challenges with innovative devices and apps is that when there are so many options out there, how do you know which are the best?
patients would like to turn to their doctors, but the reality is there are too many apps/products for doctors to vet themselves. there are over 40,000 apps in the apple app store alone!
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fortunately, there are many apps that are backed by solid clinical evidence, for example, there’s regulora for ibs, in women’s health there are olivia and balance for menopause and many good ones for mental health.
while there may not be a person on the other end of these apps all the time, technology can increase our access to healthcare professionals as well. half a million people in toronto and, over 2.3 millions across the province of ontario, do not have a family doctor – absolutely staggering numbers.technology may play a role in alleviating this problem.
one example was greatly accelerated by the pandemic with our docs moving to virtual visits, allowing doctors to see more patients. services like maple are increasing the access of patients who may not have a gp.
telemedicine is now starting to move into specialty care. a great example of which is the medical weight management center of canada, the world’s first virtual obesity clinic. the clinic is a canadian success story, building on the expertise of dr. poddar and dr. macklin, both co-authors of the world-leading canadian adult obesity clinical practise guidelines that many other countries around the world are looking to adopt.
with the rise of the glp-1 drugs (novo nordisk’s ozempic/wegovy, and eli lilly’s mounjaro/zepbound) there is a whole additional conversation to be had on their use, thinking about obesity as a chronic disease, and how behavioral psychological therapy can support sustained weight loss, but i’ll save that for another day.
it is clear that technology will play an ever increasing role in a world where healthcare resources are limited, connecting us to doctors better, and allowing us to manage our own health in ways we never thought possible.
andrew haller, phd, founder of healthstorecanada, is an unabolished tech advocate with a positive outlook. having been called “incessantly optimistic”, he looks to identify challenges within the healthcare system in canada and provide solutions. with a phd in molecular pharmacology, haller has been in the tech ecosystems that are mars discovery district and venturelab for +10 years touching every aspect of a myriad of developing technologies with a goal to help people and patients while shining a light on the innovative startups coming out of canada.
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