[paxswill]

A while back I went to the hospital because of a potentially nasty infection. The doctor was pretty surprised and excited when I opened up the Health app with temperature logs (from a smart thermometer), but they were even more intrigued by the consistently elevated heart rate (from my watch) that had started a few days before the fever. I believe it helped guide the treatment, but I can’t be entirely sure.

For more general health/fitness, the rings can be motivating in a bit of a gamification way. The easier availability of stats from workouts also points out things for me to improve on, or to make changes during the activity. For example, it’s easier for me to see if my pace is slipping while I’m hiking and pick it up, or notice if I’m pushing harder than I should and slow it down so I have the energy for the end (the watch can also be really helpful with navigating as well).

[glutinouspigeon]

I think health features like this will become pretty commonplace in the future and more doctors/nurses will utilize it. In Formula 1 racing they've been integrating sensors and transmitters for vital stats into the drivers' gloves. This allows the medical team to see what's going on as they're driving out to the crash. I believe they keep the gloves on if possible during patient transport so they can continue monitoring.

I imagine being able to provide a doctor with historical data on your vitals can be extremely beneficial. Taking your vitals while you're sitting in a clinic doesn't give the full picture. What does your heart rate mean at that time if they don't know what's normal for you? What if your temp is not high enough to be considered a fever, but it's elevated 3+ degrees higher than typical for you? Of course the accuracy of the sensor could be called into question, but if it's precise enough you can still use it to analyze trends and anomalies.