Smart Watches

[Bcol]

A subject we have discussed before, I thought this was an interesting headline this morning

telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/1...

[Kendrew]

That made for an interesting read, and I can see how it could potentially be an alternative way of supporting some types of patient care, in a way that would ease some of the current NHS systems.

Certainly something needs to change to prevent a complete collapse of our NHS.

Thanks for that Bcol.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

The idea has been mooted before - they are perfectly reasonable for GPs to use immediately to decide if that pesky patient complaining of palpitations really needs a Holter with the long queues there are for them. I've told a few people it get one and produce the evidence to a disinterested GP.

A proper medical grade monitor costs in the thousands - you'd get 10 basic smartwatches for screening for the cost of one.

[Claremarie83]

I bought a Garmin watch second hand (because new is so expensive!) and use it to track my sleep and body battery. Interestingly my body battery never goes above 5 unless it is off my wrist charging, then it goes up 😂. I had a period of chest pains and feeling utterly unwell so I took my readings to the gp who said that while we sleep with a smart watch on it could move around so the data isn't valid. I guess I can see that if the watch slips around at night it wouldn't be completely accurate but for daytime readings it is pretty spot on! When I was really poorly I used the heart rate alert to tell me when I was pushing too far and to sit and rest for a bit. As someone who likes to keep going until they can't anymore this was really helpful in getting me to stop and take rests. My heart rate has settled down now, perhaps because of the prednisolone easing the pain 🤷‍♀️ so I don't use the heart rate alert function but I still check in every morning on the app to see how I slept, how much rest I had and what my body battery is doing (I have had the odd occasion when it has gone up a little in the night! So that's always exciting!) I do hope smart watches/rings do become a part of health screening, because that kind of data could be so very useful for say, someone who had symptoms of a heart attack but by the time the ambulance comes it could have stopped and the ecg would perhaps be fine.

Thanks for the read

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Claremarie83]

Think your GP is being lazy - valid for medical diagnosis possibly not but to indicate concerning trends that need proper investigation, yes. As Bcol says, even the Holter monitors can be disrupted at night, Even cardiologists will take the recordings as evidence.

[Bcol]

Not really sure that the doctors though are totally correct. If you have one of the NHS's versions that you wear permanently for a day or week or so the the same could equally apply, it could easily/equally move during the day or night time. I've got a Galaxy watch seven and yes they are expensive to buy but I get mine as part of my mobile contract and it is a very reasonable monthly payment. It's ECG, BP and heart beat always seem to be accurate. It also has a fall monitor and if I don't respond to it it will ring the emergency services and my designated emergency numbers. I rarely wear it at night as the extra pressure on my wrist doesn't work well with my CTS.I don't think an NHS version will need all the multitude of operations that are available on many of the present commercial ones so they should be able to produce something which is a lot cheaper without losing it's accuracy.

[Bcol]

Interesting my reply has come up twice. If I delete one of them will it delete both?!! Interesting thought. Better copy one of them before going further.

[Bcol in reply to Bcol]

Well, that worked, only one deleted. 😀😀

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Bcol]

Sometimes happens… you think it hasn’t gone through, so press reply again- only to discover it has!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Bcol]

I copy EVERYTHING on HU before risking a deletion!!!!