Consumers and physicians are at odds on the value of health wearables

The data: Some 75% of consumers use a wearable for health tracking activities such as monitoring heart health, sleep, and blood pressure, according to a recent report from B-Secur.

The firm commissioned Sage Growth Partners to survey 500 adults and 85 providers, including 46 primary care physicians and 39 cardiologists, across the US in Q3 2024. Respondents answered questions about wearables (defined as smartwatches, smart rings, and personal fitness devices) and electrocardiogram technology.

Digging deeper: Consumers aren’t just fond of wearables—they’ve become integral, trusted tools for those taking an active role in monitoring their health.

• Some 69% of consumers who own a wearable device use it daily.
• A whopping 95% of those who use wearables say they would share information generated by it with a medical professional to monitor their heart health.
• And 61% of wearable owners express confidence in the accuracy of diagnoses or treatments based on the heart health data from that device.

Yes, but: Providers don’t think consumers’ wearables data is useful or reliable for health purposes.

• Just 9% of providers find over 75% of the data from consumer wearables useful.
• And they have accuracy concerns, too. Some 63% of primary care providers and 44% of cardiologists are concerned about analysis accuracy when it comes to wearables capturing infrequent cardiac events.

Some providers would use wearables data to manage their patients’ cardiac health if certain conditions were met.

• 47% said they would when there is improved accuracy and more reliability.
• And 22% would when there is a better integration into their workflows.

What’s next? Wearable makers have plans in motion to hit on some of doctors’ top concerns.

• In an effort to improve accuracy, Oura focused on advanced activity and biometric tracking capabilities in its recently released Oura Ring 4 by increasing the number of sensor pathways around the ring’s interior.
• The FDA’s qualification of the Apple Watch’s atrial fibrillation history feature for clinical study use is also a step in the right direction in assuaging physicians’ accuracy concerns.

But there’s still work to be done on the integration front. While Oura offers a service where patients can download their user data in the form of a digital or print report to share with their doctor, direct integration into a patient’s EHR isn’t available.

Our take: Wearable makers that are able to foster physician trust in the data generated by their devices could gain a competitive edge in uptake from consumers eager to share their health data with their doctors.

By the numbers: 80 million Americans currently use a health-related smart wearable, a figure that’s projected to rise to 90 million in 2028, according to our forecast.

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