The Wearable had the diagnosis. The doctor never saw it. Why data dies on your wrist or finger and What we Can do to Fix It.
A new study followed patients with palpitations using a Withings smartwatch ECG and a traditional Holter. (See Below) In the study the Withings was easier to wear. Patients preferred it. But they kept hitting the same wall.
The data does not easily reach the clinician.
Smartwatches sit outside the clinical data fabric. They generate ECGs and heart rate alerts, but none of it lands in the chart unless someone screenshots it or holds up their phone during a visit.
The problem isn’t the device. It’s the pipeline.
The Bulky Holter monitor → EHR → Clinical action
The Withings Watch → Patient → Nowhere
To fix this we need a national pathway where validated wearable data can move safely into care.
We need a TEFCA like backed layer for patient owned devices.
What is TEFCA? In plain terms.
TEFCA connects health systems, payers, labs, and apps through approved networks and it already moves clinical data like notes, labs, and imaging.
Extending TEFCA to patient owned, FDA cleared wearables would mean the data can move into EHRs like other clinical data.
Without that layer, wearable data stays trapped in apps, stuck in PDFs or the wearable companies database.
We need to move toward a National Wearable Network Exchange. Wearables will stop being wellness toys. And the path from sensor to disease treatment becomes possible.
Wearables are already diagnosing diseases. How many have we already missed ?
References
Evert Karregat Pieter Voois Eric Wierda Ralf Harskamp Wim Lucassen, Jelle Himmelreich Eric Moll van Charante
Patient experiences with a smartwatch 1L-ECG versus traditional Holter monitoring for ambulatory cardiac rhythm monitoring: a qualitative study BMJ Open 2025;15:e101557. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-101557