Wearables and Equity

Wearable devices and especially smartwatches are an emerging digital tool for daily health monitoring, adding information for healthcare decisions. However, as discussed by Zinzuwadia and Singh, in a recently published comment in Lancet Digital Health there are key bias and inequity issues relevant to the generalisability of wearables in healthcare that should be addressed. Firstly, there are survey data demonstrating the limited access of low-income populations to such technologies. Beyond the obvious issue, the authors discuss the risk of developing wearable features and AI algorithms that are not representative due to the lack of diversity in study populations. Validation studies are also important to include diverse populations, as there are emerging issues such as the lack of sensitivity of wearable devices in people of color. The authors present in a graphical way keyways and solutions that could increase equity and generalizability of wearable devices. Further, it seems more crucial than ever to establish regulatory frameworks (HTA) that address these issues in a formal, ethical and legally acceptable way.
You can find the article here.