The Wearables revolution continued from Page 33 By using a digitally innovative approach, Dr Kos believes that this will break the traditional paradigm of general practice. “We think a lot of general practices have historically been episodic and we’re trying to create more of a continuum of health information.” Alongside their general practice management system, Next Practice also has a patient application, all of which has been developed inhouse, which will capture aspects of patient data such as cardiovascular metrics from consumer grade wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch, and collate the information so that it can be discussed at the patient’s next GP consultation. As far as the efficacy of using consumer grade devices in a clinical context, Dr Kos said there had always been some contention, but their proliferation necessitated a change in how the clinician thinks about that data.” “While two different pedometers might not accurately report the same number of steps, if someone hasn't walked for the past three days and that person is elderly, that trend level information is absolutely clinically relevant, even if
32 | MARCH 2020
there's variance between different models.” “So that's what we're thinking about now. Not how we use consumer devices as a replacement for the data we would ordinarily capture from clinical devices, but more, how do you use consumer devices to establish trends of activity between consultations? That's really important.”
Person-centred design To ensure a wearable will be beneficial for the end-user, personcentred design is fundamental. As counterintuitive as this may seem, it is not always the case for the design of innovative technologies, according to Dr Leah Heiss, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and co-director of the RMIT Wearables and Sensing Network. “Many companies have a technology-first approach that is focused on fast turnaround pitches, investment, and getting products to market very quickly. This does not allow for meaningful engagement with the people who we hope will actually wear our technologies. If we are going to design devices that will change people’s lives, we need to make sure that the devices are integrated into those lives,” she said.
Dr Heiss emphasises that good design is paramount to the functionality and aesthetics, but more important is the cohort for which the device benefits. “So many resources are committed to the aesthetics of devices to count the steps of healthy people, yet so few are allocated to improving devices for people who are really unwell. The attitude seems to be that if you have a disability, you suddenly have no interest in aesthetics. This is crazy.” The Conversation as Therapy (CaT) pin is among one of Dr Heiss’s more prominent wearable design projects, which, at first glance, is a personalised brooch yet inside is a microphone, microprocessor and Bluetooth transceiver. The CaT pin detects loneliness by monitoring ambient sound to identify the presence or absence of speech by counting words over time. If a wearer of a Cat Pin has not spoken for a day, a text message can be sent to a contact to alert them. According to Dr Heiss, the CaT pin was designed with a fundamental understanding of the end-user and not only their need for the device but their emotional response to the device. To ensure use-case and end-user applicability, the CaT pin team, led
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