I’m old school and have worn a wristwatch my entire adult life. In fact, I’ve had the same timepiece on my left wrist since the mid-90s. It’s as much a part of me as my glasses. Many people abandoned watches in the mid-00s when smartphones exploded on to the scene. Why would you need a watch when a glance at your phone could tell you the time?
Next came Fitbit and it was all the rage, though the earliest models were glitchy and not very informative. Then the big guys entered the market around 2015 with the Apple Watch and other similar devices.
Technology and health care have been partners for as long as we can remember. But the deployment of wearables is becoming more common place. We’ve always known that smartwatches could monitor our heart beat, maybe blood pressure and a few other things. But Oura rings and advanced smartwatches and patches are taking this to a completely new delivery level. These devices can transmit real-time health data to your physician or family. “Wearables”— as they are called—have been around for a long time, but yesterday's
CNBC story about the “future” of wearable technology is fascinating. Early detection of COVID-19, a heart attack, or delivery of insulin or other life saving drugs is upon us. This is a quick and fascinating
read.
I don’t presently have a wearable, but I will be 62 in January and the privacy pragmatist in me suggests one could be in my future. I consider data about my retail purchases one thing, but my health and well-being? Yes, let’s not confuse a pair of socks, my grocery list, or movie rentals with my health. I don’t really care if you know about the clothes I wear, the food I eat, or the car I drive. I trust my doctor and need him to be fully informed about my health because the importance of that makes everything else irrelevant.
