• A third of Brits own a wearable device that tracks health data, but doctors question the accuracy of such devices and call on manufacturers to make their products more useful in a healthcare setting 

•  ​​Eight out of ten doctors (83%) say patients bring wearable data into the consulting room, yet the vast majority (85%) wouldn’t actually use it to make a decision about a patient’s treatment or care 
• In contrast, 67% of wearable users think the data is useful to their doctors in managing their health, and over half (51%) go so far as to say they think it might save their life   
• Nearly half (46%) of doctors, including leading UK blood pressure expert Professor Melvin Lobo agree that wearables fall short of their potential in a healthcare setting, and a similar amount (47%) want manufacturers to make their devices more useful to doctors 

• Clinically validated blood pressure wearable Aktiia is available in the UK as a Class IIa medical device, and marks a new group of healthcare wearables which are useful to both clinicians and consumers alike  

  New research from Aktiia shows how doctors are flooded with meaningless  data as people bring in results from leading consumer wearables with limited clinical validation that is not useful in a medical context. Eight in ten Doctors (83%) say their patients share  wearable data with them, but 85% wouldn’t make diagnoses or treatment decisions from the data provided by big tech brands. Reasons stated include the devices not being clinically validated (34%); too much scope for patients to use them incorrectly (44%) and the data not being provided in a way they can use in their clinic (40%). Aktiia is set to change all of that with its clinically approved wearable monitor. 

The poll shows a real mismatch between the expectations and reality of wearables in health, as two thirds (67%) of people who own one think the data is useful to their doctor. A similar proportion (64%) would take their data to their doctor, for reasons including: helping them manage their condition (52%) or helping with a diagnosis (49%). Worryingly, about a third (34%) of people who own a wearable said they have self-diagnosed using their data, replicating the dangerous pattern of using ‘Doctor Google’ for medical advice. 

 While consumer wearables can help encourage users to lead a more active lifestyle, after a decade on the market they still have not been able to gain trust and credibility with physicians due to lack of published validation, lack of meaningful clinical insights, and no integration into clinical workflow. The research, by clinical-grade blood pressure wearable brand Aktiia, highlights the flaws in the consumer wearable category as they put pressure on the tech giants to up their game.  Top cardiologist Professor Melvin Lobo, NHS Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of the Barts Blood Pressure Clinic, sees only too often how patients overestimate their smartwatches as a tool to manage their health:

 “Large consumer wearables companies have been selling the promise of improved health for years, but have not achieved the capability to provide information that can be useful in clinical practice. I have always been reluctant to use data from consumer wearables to influence a patient’s treatment or care, but I am now using Aktiia alongside other devices in my clinic, and am highly impressed by the wealth of data that accrues from continuous blood pressure monitoring over days to weeks to months. I am excited to see where we could go with clinically validated and user-friendly solutions like Aktiia, which provide data that we can actually use as an input to making important medical decisions. The potential is enormous and reinforces the critical importance of diagnosing and monitoring hypertension out of the doctor’s office, (especially when considering that up to 40% of blood pressure recordings in the clinic are confounded by white coat or masked hypertension effects).”

 Aktiia CEO Michael Kisch added: 

 “The tech giants don’t have expertise, or an interest it seems, in improving health outcomes. Very few have made any effort to obtain regulatory approvals, and even those who have, have not been willing to publish their clinical evidence or engage with the medical community. We see this as an opportunity - and have introduced a product to market with real healthcare outcomes, and incredible potential to change the way millions of patients globally are treated for hypertension.”

 He continues by calling on manufacturers to publicly disclose the accuracy of their data, to seek approval by health regulatory bodies around the globe, and to make an attempt to integrate into clinical workflow, so they too can be useful inputs to decisions on patient care.

Launched in June 2021, Aktiia is the world’s first automated 24/7 blood pressure monitor, which automatically gathers over 100 times the data of other blood pressure monitors. Aktiia’s optical sensor at the wrist measures around the clock, providing data that can be instantly viewed in a mobile app and easily shared with a doctor or family member. To date, tens of thousands of people are using Aktiia and over 30 million blood pressure readings have been captured. This data is trusted by clinicians and validated in peer reviewed journals, such as Nature.