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A number of doctors aren't so sure about the benefits of wearables eithers. A recent MIT Technology Review story found doctors from a number of specialities unsure about what to do with the data many of their fitness-tracking patients are bringing them."Clinicians can't do a lot with the number of steps you've taken in a day," Neil Sehgal, a senior research scientist at UCSF Center for Digital Health Innovation said. Andrew Trister, an oncologist and researcher at Sage Bionetworks echoed this sentiment. "[Patients] come in with these very large Excel spreadsheets, with all this information," he said. "I have no idea what to do with that."
One of the short-term problems for trackers is that their [sic] not actually reliable enough to be medically useful. The sorts of measurements that devices cheap enough to be commercial products tend only to focus on vague metrics that could just as easily be inferred from a short interview or basic examination. While certain health trackers have shown promise—such as the small implants that manage insulin for diabetics—they can also produce a hyper-vigilance and paranoia, leading to a degenerative process of over-managing issues that a person's body is already handling.
Are there Soylentils that do use fitness trackers regularly? Do they help you manage your health?
(Score: 2) by Nollij on Thursday December 03 2015, @03:35AM
It could be. It isn't necessarily, but there are a number of possibilities.
For instance: You appear to have a condition that only shows up in sedentary people.
Since you have the data to confirm that this isn't the case, he might look into other possibilities.
The problem with this, however, is there is incentive to cheat this system too. My previous employer gave these out free on their wellness plan, with incentives for walking X steps per day.
Most people realize they could just spin it around their fingers. A few hooked them to ceiling fans, etc.