From Fitbit, Jawbone and Basis to Agamatrix blood glucose monitors, wearable technology is currently at the forefront of personal health management. With a small device worn on the wrist or belt, and with the help of a computer or smartphone app, patients can accumulate information regarding their activity levels, caloric intakes, heart rates and sleep patterns. Some specialty devices can measure specific issues or even help patients manage certain conditions.
While all of this knowledge and data can provide insight for personal health management, translating and organizing that information has been a challenge. To answer this demand, Tennessee-based mobile health startup, Nudge LLC, introduced its curation app last year. The Nudge app allows a user to compile and track data from all of his or her health apps and wearable devices into one location, then uses a calculated algorithm to assign a "Nudge Factor" based on how the user's data projects overall health. The Nudge Factor is sharable with other Nudge users and on social media and can help users decide where to improve choices and compare their efforts with friends. In late 2014, Nudge LLC also launched Nudge Coach, the first HIPAA-compliant tool that will help health care professionals interpret wearable data for patients. In much the same way Nudge works for consumers, the web-based Nudge Coach tool allows health professionals to compile and analyze data on hydration, fitness, diet and sleep patterns for patients. Then, based on the same scoring premise as the consumer app, patients are assigned a "Nudge Factor" related to their overall health. "Nudge Coach is setting the precedent for how we should be utilizing our wearables data. We know that more than one-third of smartphone users are using m-health apps, and that number is supposed to exceed 50 percent by 2017," said Nudge co-founders Mac Gambill and Phil Beene in a statement. "By enabling that user information to be professionally analyzed, it allows for a more useful and meaningful interaction with that very same data, which is infinitely more useful to the consumer."
By compiling input from patients' wearable sources, providers can review large groups of data more quickly and easily assess who has the most severe areas of concern. Nudge Coach includes a private messaging tool that allows a health care provider to communicate directly with users and offer feedback on the information they receive. The Nudge and Nudge Coach applications are not limited to patients and doctors. Caregivers and skilled nursing can benefit from the insight the amalgamated data provides, and adjust scheduling and care accordingly. As more seniors make the decision to age-in-place, access to health information, sleep patterns and eating habits could provide health care professionals with the ability to oversee a patient's general care without infringing on their sense of space. As wearable devices increasingly allow patients to take control of their health, lifestyle and even serious medical conditions, the health care community must continue to try to utilize this information to provide the best possible care. Information at one's fingertips is a potential solution.
