Fitness trackers are increasingly being embraced by the medical community as an effective way to get patients more engaged in their own care.
Thousands of apps available on iPhones and Androids promise virtually every type of health-related monitoring imaginable. Some measure the number of steps you take in a day, while others monitor your sleep patterns or your vital signs.
Great, right? But while the apps might help the patients themselves stay more in tune with their bodies, they often stump doctors.
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington found that doctors are overwhelmed by the tracking data their patients present them.
"When you're managing chronic disease or symptoms, day-to-day lifestyle tracking data can be useful, but doctors don't have a way to use these data efficiently and effectively," Christina Chung, a doctoral student who authored the study, said in a university news release.
In fact, many providers reported finding the new trackers more challenging than traditional paper diaries. That's because doctors know exactly what to tell patients to record on paper, whereas the vast number of fitness trackers produce different types of data, and often present it differently. There is very little uniformity.
"One thing I'd say to app developers that there really needs to be a summary page that's quick to look at and can be interpreted in two to five minutes," said co-author Jasmine Zia. "Right now patients just print out logs and that don't work."
Another recent study found that many fitness apps offered on smartphones were effectively useless.
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