Fitbit, Google Cloud unveil wearable knowledge analytics service for healthcare

On Tuesday, Fitbit Well being Options and Google Cloud introduced they’re launching a brand new service to assist healthcare and life science organizations make the most of knowledge from wearables.

The corporate mentioned that Gadget Join for Fitbit permits sufferers to make their Fitbit knowledge accessible to suppliers, giving these sufferers management over who they share their data with and for what function. The instrument additionally features a “knowledge connector,” so knowledge could be built-in with Google Cloud’s BigQuery analytics engine or mapped to rising knowledge requirements. The connector can even make use of the Cloud Healthcare API, making Fitbit data interoperable with scientific knowledge. 

The brand new service may also embody an analytics dashboard and may use synthetic intelligence and machine studying. Fitbit and Google Cloud mentioned the instruments might be used to watch sufferers earlier than and after surgical procedure, look after continual circumstances, handle inhabitants well being, handle well being disparities and accumulate knowledge for scientific research.

“With this resolution, healthcare organizations might be more and more in a position to acquire a extra holistic view of their sufferers outdoors of scientific care settings,” Alissa Hsu Lynch, international lead for medtech technique and options at Google Cloud, and Amy McDonough, managing director of Fitbit Well being Options, wrote within the annoucement.

“These insights can improve understanding of affected person behaviors and tendencies whereas at house, enabling healthcare and life science organizations to raised help care groups, researchers and sufferers themselves.”

THE LARGER TREND

Fitbit was formally acquired by Google early final yr after the deal was held up for months by regulatory probes. The corporate not too long ago acquired FDA clearance for its photoplethysmography atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection algorithm and launched a brand new line of well being and fitness-tracking wearables. 

In the meantime, Google is nearing the launch of its personal branded smartwatch, referred to as the Pixel Watch. The tech big mentioned the brand new wearable will combine Fitbit’s well being and health capabilities.

Remotely monitoring sufferers is a rising development throughout the healthcare and life science sectors. A current examine printed in JAMA Inner Drugs discovered distant affected person monitoring use amongst Medicare beneficiaries elevated from 91 claims per 100,000 enrollees in February 2020 to 594 claims per 100,000 enrollees in September 2021. 

However a evaluate printed in JMIR discovered some obstacles to elevated adoption. Although health-tracking wearables may inspire behavioral change amongst sufferers and supply extra complete data for suppliers, they would possibly require extra clinician coaching and add to their workloads.