Rob Argent

Lecturer in #DigitalHealth @RCSI_Irl @RCSIPharmBioMol #connectedhealth // PhD Digital Health // Physiotherapist. International Hockey Umpire @FIH_Hockey

[RCSI School of Population Health @RCSI_PopHealth]

The impact of digital health on outcomes can be categorised as clinical, experiential, societal or economic, said Dr @argentrob at #NHOC2025. Adherence is a key outcome that can be measured & facilitated through digital health, he said. This can optimise health resource utilisation, improve health literacy & increase QoL.

[RCSI School of Population Health @RCSI_PopHealth]

Dr @argentrob, @RCSIPharmBioMol, outlining what digital health is & what it can do for outcomes at #NHOC2025 at @RCSI_Irl today. While technology is at the centre of official definitions of digital health, he highlighted the role of connected health & the role of the patient.

[MAINTAIN programme @MAINTAINprog]

Excited to announce our latest publication- just in time for Christmas!
Check out the full paper here: https://t.co/eMd2Y11t0B
@SarahCHowes @smcdonough2 @aoifestephenson @argentrob

[npj Digital Medicine @npjDigitalMed]

"It’s déjà vu all over again"

This thought provoking commentary considers the question of whether we can 'learn from the failures of the EHR to guide the implementation of #artificalintelligence in medicine, or is history destined to repeat itself?'

https://t.co/EQmw5ebb1K

[FutureNeuro Centre @Futureneuro_ie]

💡It’s #DigitalHealth Week! Explore how we’re co-designing & evaluating AI-driven solutions focused on patient safety and privacy. From epilepsy to mental health, we’re making healthcare more proactive & accessible: https://t.co/ws9jtT9MaW

[Pulse+IT @pulseitnews]

Ireland’s interpretation of GDPR ‘disgraceful’ – NI digital health expert https://t.co/ZJ3AmErkJO

[RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences @RCSIPharmBioMol]

It's always an exciting time of year when we welcome new faces!

Today sees us welcome students at the start of their journey in the 2024/25 cohort of our MSc in Technologies & Analytics in #PrecisionMedicine.

Great to see so many faces joining our community. 🎓

[University College Dublin @ucddublin]

🏃‍♂️⌚️ 𝙊𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨? 𝙇𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 🧵👇

Back in 2010, Gary Wolf, then the editor of Wired magazine, delivered a TED talk in Cannes called “the quantified self”. It was about what he termed a “new fad” among tech enthusiasts. These early adopters were using gadgets to monitor everything from their physiological data to their mood, and even the number of nappies their children used.

Wolf acknowledged that these people were outliers – tech geeks fascinated by data – but their behaviour has since permeated mainstream culture.

From the smartwatches that track our steps and heart rate, to the fitness bands that log sleep patterns and calories burned, these gadgets are now ubiquitous. Their popularity is emblematic of a modern obsession with quantification – the idea that if something isn’t logged, it doesn’t count.

At least half the people in any given room are likely wearing a device, such as a fitness tracker, that quantifies some aspect of their lives. Wearables are being adopted at a pace reminiscent of the mobile phone boom of the late 2000s.

However, the quantified self movement still grapples with an important question: can wearable devices truly measure what they claim to?

Along with my colleagues Maximus Baldwin, Alison Keogh, Brian Caulfield and Rob Argent, I recently published an umbrella review (a systematic review of systematic reviews) examining the scientific literature on whether consumer wearable devices can accurately measure metrics like heart rate, aerobic capacity, energy expenditure, sleep and step count.

At a surface level, our results were quite positive. Accepting some error, wearable devices can measure heart rate with an error rate of plus or minus 3%, depending on factors like skin tone, exercise intensity and activity type. They can also accurately measure heart rate variability and show good sensitivity and specificity for detecting arrhythmia, a problem with the rate of a person’s heart beat.

Additionally, they can accurately estimate what’s known as cardiorespiratory fitness, which is how the circulatory and respiratory systems supply oxygen to the muscles during physical activity. This can be quantified by something called VO2Max, which is a measure of how much oxygen your body uses while exercising.

The ability of wearables to accurately measure this is better when those predictions are generated during exercise (rather than at rest). In the realm of physical activity, wearables generally underestimate step counts, by about 9%.

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙧
However, discrepancies were larger for energy expenditure (the number of calories you burn when exercising) with error margins ranging from −21.27% to 14.76%, depending on the device used and the activity undertaken.

Results weren’t much better for sleep. Wearables tend to overestimate total sleep time and sleep efficiency, typically by more than 10%. They also tend to underestimate sleep onset latency (a lag in getting to sleep) and wakefulness after sleep onset. Errors ranged from 12% to 180%, compared to the gold standard measurements used in sleep studies, known as polysomnography.

The upshot is that, despite the promising capabilities of wearables, we found conducting and synthesising research in this field to be very challenging. One hurdle we encountered was the inconsistent methodologies employed by different research groups when validating a given device.

This lack of standardisation leads to conflicting results and makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about a device’s accuracy. A classic example from our research: one study might assess heart rate accuracy during high-intensity interval training, while another focuses on sedentary activities, leading to discrepancies that can’t be easily reconciled.

Other issues include varying sample sizes, participant demographics, and experimental conditions – all of which add layers of complexity to the interpretation of our findings.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙚?
Perhaps most importantly, the rapid pace at which new wearable devices are released exacerbates these issues. With most companies following a yearly release cycle, we and other researchers find it challenging to keep up. The timeline for planning a study, obtaining ethical approval, recruiting and testing participants, analysing results, and publishing can often exceed 12 months.

By the time a study is published, the device under investigation is likely to already be obsolete, replaced by a newer model with potentially different specifications and performance characteristics. This is demonstrated by our finding that less than 5% of the consumer wearables that have been released to date have been validated for the range of physiological signals they purport to measure.

What do our results mean for you? As wearable technologies continue to permeate various facets of health and lifestyle, it is important to approach manufacturers’ claims with a healthy dose of scepticism. Gaps in research, inconsistent methodologies and the rapid pace of new device releases underscore the need for a more formalised and standardised approach to validation of devices.

The goal here would be to foster collaborative synergies between formal certification bodies, academic research consortia, popular media influencers, and the industry, so that we can augment the depth and reach of wearable technology evaluation.

Efforts are already underway to establish a collaborative network that can foster a richer, multifaceted dialogue that resonates with a broad spectrum of stakeholders – ensuring that wearables are not just innovative gadgets, but reliable tools for health and wellness.

✍️ Assistant Professor Cailbhe Doherty, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science

[Irish Hockey Umpires @Irish_Umpires]

Big news... Our very own @AliKeogh88 has been appointed to umpire the Bronze Medal Match of #Paris2024 #Hockey between 🇦🇷 & 🇧🇪 - Friday @ 1pm.

A fantastic achievement after superb performances at her first Olympic Games! Congratulations to her and all the officials in Paris. 🥉

[Rob Argent @argentrob]

A pleasure to work with @DohertyCailbhe & the team on this living #UmbrellaReview of #wearables in @SportsMedicineJ.

What a fantastic video Cailbhe has put together describing the paper in the post below. 📽️

[Dr Cailbhe Doherty @DohertyCailbhe]

Read our latest #research on the accuracy of #WearableTech, published in @SportsMedicineJ.

"Keeping Pace with Wearables: A Living Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews Evaluating the Accuracy of Consumer Wearable Technologies in Health Measurement"

https://t.co/nTgVj0mtYW

[Department of Health @roinnslainte]

This framework sets out a roadmap to digitally transform health services in Ireland and improve access for patients. This year will see the roll-out of a patient app that will provide people with important medical history and records.

https://t.co/GAFaUXbOgX

[Rob Argent @argentrob]

Excited to officially launch this study on #WorldMSDay & very much looking forward to realising the potential of this #digitalhealth technology.

There is still time to join the team as a Clinical Research Nurse:
https://t.co/eNWnKEV4wO

[RCSI @RCSI_Irl]

RCSI has partnered with @DiagnosticsHead on a new study which aims to improve the assessment and monitoring of Multiple Sclerosis through innovative technology.

Learn more about the project launching today for #WorldMSDay➡️ https://t.co/i0XhK3UHre

#RCSIdiscover

[Dr Cailbhe Doherty @DohertyCailbhe]

Cerberus is spearheading public health innovation with wearable technology.

Learn how your participation and data donation can lead to groundbreaking advancements in health care.

Join our mission.

#NationalChallengeFund #NextGenerationEU

https://t.co/L1f73mpO5t ✍️

[Rob Argent @argentrob]

Are you willing to share your #wearable data for research and/or clinical purposes?

50% of those in this survey by @drjessilyn et al. said yes, with a further 38% maybe. Fascinating insights into what types of data people are comfortable sharing published in @npjDigitalMed.

[npj Digital Medicine @npjDigitalMed]

Smartphones & #wearables transform health monitoring. However, bias in digital health studies and algorithms arises from underrepresented datasets.

This @DukeU team explore device ownership, reasons for use, & willingness to share data for research.

https://t.co/WFde74WpkA

[npj Digital Medicine @npjDigitalMed]

Topical content in this weeks News & Views... would you be willing to donate your #wearable health data?

"The future of health data donation from wearables is a future of fully aware and consenting participants, who understand the value of data sharing."
https://t.co/tl9LTWpbN3

[Dr Cailbhe Doherty @DohertyCailbhe]

If you continue to use your wearable for the next 30-years, what might you learn about your health?

Thanks @RTERadio1 for the chat about our @scienceirel
funded project based in the @insight_centre and @RCSIPharmBioMol with @argentrob

Listen back here: https://t.co/ddwjGXnv0d

[RCSI @RCSI_Irl]

RCSI is the core partner on a new €7M DigiBio Innovator’s Initiative Programme, led by @DkIT_ie which aims to enhance and accelerate digital health innovation in Ireland.

#RCSIdiscover

Read more https://t.co/qLYlOa2uUW

[Rob Argent @argentrob]

A really interesting article from @DohertyCailbhe discussing #wearable data & laying the background to our @scienceirel funded project between @ucd_sphpss and @RCSIPharmBioMol seeking to achieve this 'utopian scenario' where wearable health data is used for public health good.👇🏻

[UCD Public Health, Physiotherapy & Sports Science @ucd_sphpss]

"As we navigate this new era of digital health, it’s crucial that we shape a future where technology serves the users’ best interests, not the other way around."
Very interesting read⬇️from #UCDSPHPSS Asst Prof @DohertyCailbhe about fitness wearables.
https://t.co/gIeuwz07Hh

[RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences @RCSIPharmBioMol]

Our MSc in Technologies and Analytics in Precision Medicine brings together cutting-edge #precisionmedicine, #computationalbiology & #DigitalHealth.

The exciting MSc may interest science grads, computer scientists & HCPs✨

Learn more➡️ https://t.co/gHticKOZaW… #RCSIeducate

[Rob Argent @argentrob]

https://t.co/vIr1VhUGfT