Innovation in monitoring your health with smart watches

According to Harvard Health, “the iWatch, FitBit, Garmin and Oura Ring have all revolutionized the way we track our health and wellness. One in five people own one.

From steps and calories to heart rate and sleep, your smartwatch tracks it all.

Studies show that people who track their health with a smart device increase their physical activity by 50 more minutes per week and take 1,200 more steps per day.

Health alerts can detect potential health problems, such as irregular heartbeats, but are these smartwatches always right?

“These are good starting points, but they don’t work for everyone,” adds Vanessa Volpe, PhD, Health Psychologist at North Carolina State University.

NC State University psychologist Vanessa Volpe’s team puts smartwatches to the test.

“If you ever turn that device over, you can sometimes see a green light, coming out of the back of that device,” adds Vanessa Volpe, PhD.

Green light is sent through the skin and reflected back to the watch’s sensors, but Volpe says green light reflects differently on different skin tones.

“If you have more melanin in your skin, meaning your skin is darker, the light won’t penetrate and reflect to the same extent,” adds Vanessa Volpe, PhD.

Volpe says the reflected signal for people of color can be as low as half the signal and could have repercussions on measurements of heart rate, blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms.

“The technology itself, as designed, didn’t account for people with different skin tones, especially people with darker skin tones,” adds Vanessa Volpe, PhD.

Volpe sees this discrepancy as a sign of the medical industry’s failure to determine the impact of race on health and hopes her findings will help address racial disparities in health care.

Another disadvantage of wearing your health information on your sleeve is that your information can be tracked by third parties looking to steal your identity.

Data from fitness apps is not protected like health information under HIPAA, meaning it can be sold or shared with data brokers, or used for identity theft.

Fitness trackers often connect to the user’s phone via Bluetooth, leaving personal data exposed to hacking. To protect yourself, be sure to change your workout’s default settings so that your information can’t be shared.