Perceptions of patients and nurses regarding the use of wearables in inpatient settings: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACT

Wearable devices for hospitalized patients could help improve care. The purpose of this study was to highlight key barriers and facilitators involved in adopting wearable technology in acute care settings using patient and clinician feedback. Hospitalized patients, 18 years or older, were recruited at the General Medicine inpatient units in Toronto, Ontario to wear the Fitbit® Charge 2 or Charge 3. Fifty General Medicine adult inpatients were recruited. Patients and nurses provided feedback on structured questionnaires. Key themes from open-ended questions were analyzed. Primary outcomes of interest included the exploring patient and nurse perceptions of their experiences with wearable devices as well as their feasibility in clinical settings. Overall, both patients (n = 39) and nurses (n = 28) valued the information provided by Fitbits and shared concerns about device functionality and wearable design. Specifically, patients were interested in using wearables to enhance their self-monitoring, while nurses questioned data validity, as well as ease of incorporating wearables into their workflow. We found that patients wanted improved device design and functionality and valued the opportunity to improve their self-efficacy and to work in partnership with the medical team using wearable technology. Nurses wanted more device functionality and validation and easier ways to incorporate them into their workflow. To achieve the potential benefits of using wearable devices for enhanced monitoring, this study identifies challenges that must first be addressed in order for this technology to be widely adopted in clinical settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Wearables
• general medicine
• inpatient
• patient monitoring
• internal medicine

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the help of Sigourney Shaw in performing enrolment and data collection (permission received).

Dr. Wu is supported by an award from the Mak Pak Chiu and Mak-Soo Lai Hing Chair in General Internal Medicine, University of Toronto.

Contributions

RW conceived of the study. MB, PC, TM, KG, RC, LL, VP, SM and SS helped to design the study. VP, SM enrolled participants and collected data. VP, SM, SS did the initial analysis and MB, PC, TM, RC, LL, VP, SM, KG helped to interpret the data. VP and SM drafted the initial manuscript and it was revised by all.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Robert Wu is receiving research funding from Samsung Research America to conduct a study using Samsung devices in patients with COPD (NCT03857061).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was received from the Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospital Foundation to conduct research in complex care; Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation