Patient Monitor vs. Fitness Tracker – How Do These Devices Impact Healthcare Today?
Remote patient monitor systems are often useful for patients who require regular monitoring due to a certain medical condition, such as diabetes or congestive heart failure, or following a recent hospital visit. While these patients need constant attention, their healthcare providers have deemed it unnecessary for the individuals to remain in a medical facility, and allows them to continue monitoring from the comfort of their own homes.
Recently, a fitness epidemic has swept the nation, causing both patients and healthcare professionals to ask whether fitness trackers – such as those made by FitBit, Nike, Garmin, and Jawbone – will impact patient monitoring. Through research and a series of clinical trials, medical professionals have found a unique correlation between fitness trackers and patient monitor systems.
On one hand, fitness trackers record everything from sleep patterns to exercise and heart rates to caloric intake. However, this information is often displayed to friends and followers either in-app or on larger social media sites, unlike patient monitor systems that allow data to be accessed solely by healthcare professionals. This continues to raise concern within the healthcare community as using data from a fitness tracker poses a risk to patient confidentiality and information security. Healthcare physicians also tend to distrust the quality of information provided by fitness trackers because the data is self-reported, preferring information from patient monitor reports over those provided by tracking devices.
Furthermore, fitness trackers seem to represent the preventative side of healthcare today; while patient monitor systems tend to be associated with monitoring those who are already sick or are recovering, fitness trackers encourage patients to be more active throughout their day-to-day routines. In turn, this increased activity often leads patients to have lower health risks further down the line.
If you’re in the market for a remote patient monitor that will allow your healthcare provider to track your condition from the comfort of your home, contact Infinium Medical today to learn more about our affordable patient monitors.
