Wearable tech refers to special gadgets that are worn on the human body. These include consumer products marketed as wellness gadgets, such as smartwatches from Apple and Fitbit, as well as more specialized medical devices designed to monitor electrolyte levels or screen blood for cancer cells.
Health care wearables allow healthcare professionals to remotely observe patients’ vital signs and symptoms. This enables them to catch a variety of early health concerns and address them before they evolve into more severe symptoms, thereby helping individuals avoid unnecessary or complex treatments.
Moreover, health-related wearables can motivate users to change their habits through the ability to provide motivational reminders, contextualize data via a companion app, and offer positive reinforcement of successful achievements (e.g., by displaying a progress chart). However, these devices can also generate annoyances such as the feeling of fatigue caused by regular use or the risk of losing a device, which may discourage users from adopting the technology despite its apparent benefits.
Although many barriers prevent the effective adoption of health-related wearables, they can be overcome. The adoption of a positive attitude towards this technology by both patients and providers is important. In particular, healthcare professionals should encourage patients to use wearables as part of their self-monitoring routines and not view them as an intrusive or invasive technology. Furthermore, the diffusion of innovations theory [87] suggests that healthcare providers can play a role in facilitating adoption by addressing concerns and promoting use of wearables among laggards.