Consumer Wearables and the Integration of New Objective Measures in Oncology: Patient and Provider Perspectives

With one in five adults in the United States owning a smartwatch or fitness tracker, these devices are poised to impact all aspects of medicine by offering a more objective approach to replace self-reported data. Oncology has proved to be a prototypical example, and wearables offer immediate benefits to patients and oncologists with the ability to track symptoms and health metrics in real time. We aimed to review the recent literature on consumer-grade wearables and its current applications in cancer from the perspective of both the patient and the provider. The relevant studies suggested that these devices offer benefits, such as improved medication adherence and accuracy of symptom tracking over self-reported data, as well as insights that increase patient empowerment. Physical activity is consistently correlated with stronger patient outcomes, and a patient’s real-time metrics were found to be capable of tracking medication side effects and toxicity. Studies have made associations between wearable data and telomere shortening, cardiovascular disease, alcohol consumption, sleep apnea, and other conditions. The objective data obtained by the wearable presents a more complete picture of an individual’s health than the snapshot of a 15-minute office visit and a single set of vital signs. Real-time metrics can be translated into a digital phenotype that identifies risk factors specific to each patient, and shared risk factors across one’s social network may uncover common environmental exposures detrimental to one’s health. Wearable data and its upcoming integration with social media will be the foundation for the next generation of personalized medicine.