[asd]

I predict that in 10 years, more people than not will be wearing a smart watch of some type that will continuously be tracking vitals. You'll probably even be offered a free one by your employer or health provider.

Average heartrate gradually going up over the last few weeks? Your doctor's office will ping you to drop by. Sleep patterns have been erratic lately? Send down an electronic questionnaire to see what's up. You see? If you unveil the symptoms sooner, you can treat them sooner. That makes sense. $$$.

[theoh]

That's a dystopian scenario, given that poor health is often an excuse for discriminating against the unfortunate people who experience it.

Disclosing everything to a trusted employer or health provider is a step we need to be very careful about. It's panopticon territory.

[jmount]

Also I bet we are going to find the health statistics of people found to have minor arrhythmia through cheap continuous screening are going to be completely different than those that come in with a complaint and are given a one-time screening. It may turn out to not be as clinically useful as hoped.

[entee]

Almost certainly true. Also, how accurate are these optical HR sensors?

Chest strap monitors are somewhat more accurate than optical monitors:

http://www.wareable.com/sport/heart-rate-monitors-chest-stra...

And it's unclear whether the optical measures are accurate enough to inform health decisions. I can say we've looked at this at our company and it's a fairly complicated picture...

[bottled_poe]

I doubt it. Surely I'm not the only person who finds watches annoying to wear. I'll only start using these devices if I'm not constantly aware of the thing.