Digital device link to health records could be key to answering major health challenges

22 May 2023

Health insights gained from smart tech and wearable devices could be bolstered dramatically by safe and secure linkage to electronic health records, according to researchers at the BHF Data Science Centre.

Such insights could be used to address some of the UK’s most pressing medical concerns, the research team suggests.

Around nine in 10 people in the UK have access to a smartphone, making it an easy way to take part remotely in studies and reduce barriers to participation in research.

Data gathered in this way may reflect real-world situations better than traditional studies and are relatively quick, cheap, and robust, due to the potentially very high numbers of people taking part.

Gathering research data through digital devices such as smartphones has become more popular, thanks to studies such as the ZOE Health Study, which was quickly able to make findings in the pandemic thanks to the large number of people taking part on their smartphones.

Overall, however, widespread advances have been hampered by an inability to link with data from the person’s health records, say the authors.

“This is a very exciting time for wearables research, but it will take a huge joint effort to unleash its full potential and ensure no one is left behind. Our goal is to answer vital research questions that matter to patients across many diseases and wearables have a huge part to play – linking healthcare records in an ethical way will be crucial in this.”

Professor Tim Chico

Associate Director for Personal Monitoring at the BHF Data Science Centre and consultant cardiologist

Securely linking wearable data to existing medical records provides doctors and researchers with a more comprehensive overview of the person’s health, allowing them to spot relationships, for example, between symptoms or lifestyle factors, and later disease onset or severity.

The editorial – published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research – sets out a course for transforming health research through wearables, based on the outcomes of two major stakeholder workshops.

The authors – led by academics from the Universities of Manchester and Oxford – highlight that research priorities set by the public across major health conditions all include questions that could be addressed by digital devices. Together, these conditions, including arthritis, heart disease, and dementia account for a huge proportion of worldwide disease and disability.

However, this requires investment in areas such as building public trust, improved data synchrony across studies, and better equality in terms of who has access to a smartphone or wearable device.

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