Resource Roundup: Incorporating Wearable Technology into Your Patient Practice

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By Avery St. Onge

Today, it seems like just about everyone is wearing some form of wearable technology, whether that be a smartwatch, Oura Ring, or continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The question is, where is all that data going?

With so many of these devices being direct-to-consumer, oftentimes, their data are not being analyzed by healthcare professionals; moreover, many healthcare professionals don’t know how to go about using them in their practice.

In this article, we’ve rounded up our top resources on incorporating wearable technology into your practice. Continue reading to learn about analyzing CGM data, AI assistants, and more.

What to Know Before Incorporating CGM Data into Your Practice

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) have been used for diabetes management for over 20 years, but they’re only recently being explored for patients without diabetes. Research has shown that CGMs could lead to better diabetes prevention for high-risk populations such as those with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), cystic fibrosis, and obesity. However, CGMs are now being used to help optimize the glucose levels of everyday patients in hopes of improving their physical and mental health.

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Three Likely Applications of AI in Integrative Healthcare

Over the past five years, the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have rapidly advanced, accomplishing tasks never thought possible by a machine. And while scientists cannot fully replicate the human brain, in many ways, AI has the potential to surpass human abilities, especially in healthcare, according to Greg Elliot, MS, CEP, DO(MP).

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Leveraging Precision Testing and Wearable Data to Optimize Health with Sara Szal Gottfried

Sara Szal Gottfried, MD, joins Integrative Practitioner Content Specialist, Avery St. Onge, to discuss how she uses in-depth testing and wearable technology to tailor personalized treatment plans to help optimize her patient’s health and meet their individual goals.

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How Technology is Transforming Integrative Medicine

Healthcare is becoming increasingly personalized, predictive, and precise thanks to the convergence of genomics, AI, and digital health tools, according to Daniel Kraft, MD, physician-scientist and founder of IntelliMedicine.

“We’re moving from a world of reactive to proactive medicine, where the future is not about waiting for disease to happen but preventing it in the first place,” he said at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

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Future Clinical Applications of Wearable Technology

Right now, doctors are drawing large amounts of blood with a needle that hurts, making relatively few measurements from that blood, and then treating patients based on population averages, but according to Michael Snyder, PhD, every one of those steps can be improved.

Instead of analyzing patient data based on population averages, Snyder, chair of the Department of Genetics and director for the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University, believes patients’ test results should be compared to their previous baseline measurements.

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Using wearable technology to optimize holistic behavioral interventions

Greg Elliot, MS, CEP, DO(MP), joins Integrative Practitioner associate editor, Avery St. Onge, to discuss how wearable technologies can be used alongside holistic behavioral interventions to improve out-of-clinic care.

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