You see them everywhere, on people’s wrists and in annoyingly contagious adverts but could wearable fitness devices be put to even better use? Yes, they monitor your day to day ‘fitness’, such things as how many steps you’re taking and how much sleep you’re getting but if they are able to gather this sort of information could they not also gather data that tells you there is something seriously wrong?

That is certainly the hope and idea behind aparito, an app and wearable device that aims to help children suffering from a variety of diseases. Founder and director of aparito, Dr. Elin Haf Davies, who has worked as a children’s nurse for many years, explains how aparito was born out of a ‘frustration that we were relying on very sterile snapshots of data that tell you how the patient is doing on a hospital visit but which doesn’t actually tell you anything about how they’re coping in day to day life at home.’

I hope our approach will contribute quite significantly to changing the way patients are in control of their own data.

The idea behind aparito is simple: to take information gathered by the wearable device, combine it with the patient’s perspective on how they are handling their illness. The data can be accessed by the patient’s doctor in real-time at all times, cutting out the need for all manner of long and arduous tests to get the same results.

The key to this is that the app and wearable device are designed to benefit both the patient and the doctor. The patient is able to keep track of their symptoms and therefore better manage their illness as well as knowing when to take medication. Meanwhile, the doctor is able to monitor the everyday activity of the patient.

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Credit Alex Moss