Víctor Pedrera Carbonell, family doctor and General Secretary of the Medical Union of the Valencian Community (CESM-CV) and Sofía Bauer Izquierdo, family doctor in Valencia.
The control of our state of health can be carried out in a very simple way thanks to the Smart Watches. Even before a disease is diagnosedthe data referring to our vital signs that are stored daily in these devices that can help to discover that something is not going well, a signal that will indicate that it is better consult a specialist.
It is the case of a Nursing student that he recommended in his TikTok account to activate all health notifications available on smart watches, such as the Apple Watch. “Don’t get me wrong, your Apple Watch is definitely not something you should follow as medical advice, but it can be useful, I suppose, as a tool to prompt you to go and investigate things further,” he explains, noting how important it is. turn on notifications so if something isn’t right, your device will let you know.
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Heart rhythm control via smartwatch
The smart watches record daily data of our healthAs the heart rate —that if it is very low or very high on a regular basis it can be a sign that something is not right—. That is why family doctors recommend its use, as explained to Medical Writing Víctor Pedrera Carbonell, who is also Secretary General of the Medical Union of the Valencian Community (CESM-CV). “These devices can provide extremely valuable information, especially for the control and monitoring of pathologies,” he explains before warning: “The diagnosis should be left exclusively in the hands of those who are only trained to do so, that is, doctors. Interpretations made by laymen or by untrained people can lead to errors with their consequent repercussions on people’s health.Their use must be limited exclusively as alarm signal“.
It is common to think that the only pathology that can be controlled with these smart devices are those that affect the heart, but they are not the only ones. “The control of metabolic pathologies such as diabetes, obesity, arterial hypertension, etc., require a daily physical exercise plan, diet, etc., for which these devices are especially useful in their registration and as reminder tool“, assures this newspaper the doctor.
It is also important to install different applications or alarm activation that assist patients to “comply with their treatments. Their role as help is beyond any doubt”, says Víctor Pedrera Carbonell.
Control saturation during Covid-19 infection
As for heart problems, the doctor reminds Medical Writing that have “ability to detect heart rate and rhythm that allows detecting arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation or bradycardia that do not produce symptoms that alarm the patient”. They are a warning of what is happening in your heart so that you go to a medical specialist to make a diagnosis.
In addition, their use in the pandemic should be taken into consideration since there are some models of these smart watches that are capable of detecting the O2 saturation which can be useful for take control at home of the evolution of Covid-19 infection and how it is affecting the lungs.
“It is a useful tool, very simple to use and that can serve the general population as alarm signal when contacting the professional. During the first phases of the pandemic, when the population was confined, having these devices has been of great help”, recalls the doctor.
Smart watches help well-being and health
Sofía Bauer Izquierdo, who is a family doctor at the Malvarrosa Health Center (Valencia), explains to Medical Writing that “there is a 2016 meta-analysis —’Health at hand: A systematic review of smart watch uses for health and wellness Blaine Reeder et al. J Biome’— that makes a systematic review of the use of smart watches in terms of wellness and healthand concludes that more studies are necessary for smartwatches to be validated in terms of effectiveness for health support”.
However, the doctor agrees with Víctor Pedrera Carbonell and explains that the data recorded by smart watches must be taken into account for a medical assessment in case of finding any type of anomaly in them, as is already being taken into account by some patients .
“There have been cases in which, thanks to some clocks with a fall detection and others with detection of altered heart rate, they have gone in the first case to the emergency teams and in the second, to the family doctor who has been able to verify the anomaly. However, they are not sufficiently developed systems to obtain a diagnosis and their information must be contrasted with other methods of clinical diagnosis.”
And he highlights: “There are devices that are capable of detecting the blood oxygen saturation and a drop in saturation below 96 percent, should alert us and prompt us to contact a health professional“.
Although it may contain statements, data or notes from health institutions or professionals, the information contained in Medical Writing is edited and prepared by journalists. We recommend the reader that any questions related to health be consulted with a health professional.