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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @03:47PM
The data by itself does little.
I personally use it to motivate me.
I can also use it to say 'oh wait if I eat that I go over my goal'.
The graphs are kinda interesting and show me if I need to change anything.
AND once again I am trying to cut sugar out AGAIN. Cola and snacks are just too tempting. Last week was horrible for me. But I am back at it again. Dont break the chain is the biggest part of that. The monitoring helps remind you to not break the chain.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday December 02 2015, @03:53PM
As noted I think it could work as a motivator for you, or a person that is into fitness and exercise. But from a medical standpoint I don't see what a doctor could use it for in a diagnostic sort of way (he can see you slept for x hours and that you took y steps some day). It just won't tell him that you got the flue, except that you probably start to move less and sleep more - but you could also just be lazy.