Smart Watches and Wearable Devices in the Emergency Department

The idea of using smart watches and similar devices to track patients before or after a hospital encounter reminds me of one of Zia's other studies. In 2019 he co-authored a paper that found when subtle vital sign abnormalities were detected in ED patients, they were significant predictors of poor outcomes like death. And small changes increased mortality risk. I suggested to Zia that perhaps giving these types of patients a wearable device at discharge could begin to address this problem.