Wearables as Health Dashboards: Can Real-Time Data Redefine Care?

Wearables have evolved from fitness trackers to devices that continuously monitor metrics like heart rate, sleep, and activity, with researchers hoping AI-driven analysis of these data—along with biomarkers—will enable earlier disease detection and personalized care. Real-world adoption faces hurdles: turning streams of data into meaningful clinical insights, integrating with electronic health records, and standardizing when wearable-derived signals should guide treatment. Regulatory and privacy questions loom as devices blur the line between wellness tools and medical devices, and behavior change to act on insights remains inconsistent.