The news: Many patients are talking to their doctors about health wearable data, according to a March American Medical Association survey of 2,222 physicians across six countries, including 720 in the US.

According to physicians, their patients did the following at least weekly during the past three months:

• 23% asked for guidance on how to use wearable data to manage health.
• 21% asked them to review, interpret, or discuss health wearable data.
• 16% scheduled appointments to specifically discuss the data.
• 15% asked them to incorporate their wearable data into ongoing monitoring or care.

Why it matters: As more patients bring wearable data into the exam room, physicians are engaging with it. Some 32% of US physicians say they receive requests to review patients’ wearable data at least weekly, and 28% say they take clinical action based on that data, per the AMA survey.

However, integrating wearable data into clinical care remains a challenge. Physicians say the biggest barriers to integration is the time required to discuss, interpret, and review data with patients. That may explain why while more than three-quarters (77%) of US physicians are considering using patients’ wearable data in clinical workflows, just 6% have integrated it.

Some medical professionals also remain skeptical of wearable data’s clinical value. They question whether consumer wearables are accurate enough for medical decision-making. Additionally, health data generated by wearable devices often isn't clinically actionable. For example, a wearable may flag minor fluctuations in heart rate that, absent a broader trend, aren't significant enough for a physician to act on, multiple medical experts told STAT.

Implications for digital health companies: Consumers remain the primary drivers of wearable adoption, but healthcare providers determine whether and how that data becomes part of routine care.

Tech companies don't need to convince physicians that wearables are worth owning (82% say they use wearables personally), but they need to prove the data is clinically valid and easy to use. The focus should be on regulatory validation, as 44% of US physicians say regulatory approval is either essential or strongly influences their trust in a consumer wearable device’s accuracy, per AMA. Seamless integration into electronic health records and existing clinical workflows will also help sway physicians versus simply sending them more patient-generated data to parse through.

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