Healthcare Applications of Smart Watches

Summary

Objective

The aim of this systematic review is to synthesize research studies involving the use of smart watch devices for healthcare.

Materials and Methods

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was chosen as the systematic review methodology. We searched PubMed, CINAHL Plus, EMBASE, ACM, and IEEE Xplore. In order to include ongoing clinical trials, we also searched ClinicalTrials.gov. Two investigators evaluated the retrieved articles for inclusion. Discrepancies between investigators regarding article inclusion and extracted data were resolved through team discussion.

Results

356 articles were screened and 24 were selected for review. The most common publication venue was in conference proceedings (13, 54%). The majority of studies were published or presented in 2015 (19, 79%). We identified two registered clinical trials underway. A large proportion of the identified studies focused on applications involving health monitoring for the elderly (6, 25%). Five studies focused on patients with Parkinson’s disease and one on cardiac arrest. There were no studies which reported use of usability testing before implementation.

Discussion

Most of the reviewed studies focused on the chronically ill elderly. There was a lack of detailed description of user-centered design or usability testing before implementation. Based on our review, the most commonly used platform in healthcare research was that of the Android Wear. The clinical application of smart watches as assistive devices deserves further attention.

Conclusion

Smart watches are unobtrusive and easy to wear. While smart watch technology supplied with biosensors has potential to be useful in a variety of healthcare applications, rigorous research with their use in clinical settings is needed.

Citation: Lu T-C, Fu C-M, Ma M H-M, Fang C-C, Turner AM. Healthcare applications of smart watches: A systematic review.

Keywords

Other clinical informatics applications - Interfaces and usability - Healthcare - Wearable device - Smart watch

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