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Investigation of wearable health tracker version updates

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Abstract

Background
Wearable fitness trackers are increasingly used in healthcare applications; however, the frequent updating of these devices is at odds with traditional medical device practices.

Objective
Our objective was to explore the nature and frequency of wearable tracker updates recorded in device changelogs, to reveal the chronology of updates and to estimate the intervals where algorithm updates could impact device validations.

Method
Updates for devices meeting selection criteria (that included their use in clinical trials) were independently labelled by four researchers according to simple function and specificity schema.

Results
Device manufacturers have diverse approaches to update reporting and changelog practice. Visual representations of device changelogs reveal the nature and chronology of device iterations. 13% of update items were unspecified and 32% possibly affected validations with as few as 5 days between updates that may affect validation.

Conclusion
Manufacturers could aid researchers and health professionals by providing more informative device update changelogs.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 16, 2019
Online Publication Date Oct 9, 2019
Publication Date Oct 9, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics
Print ISSN 2632-1009
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 26
Issue 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100083
Publisher URL http://doi.org/10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100083

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