Wearables in Sports Medicine

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Wearable technologies are portable technical aids that have been used in competitive and popular sports for several years now. The devices can provide information on speed, stress levels, energy consumption and training status and are also becoming increasingly popular in the private sphere.

Top athletes are constantly endeavouring to improve their sporting performance. Technology has created new opportunities for time and motion analysis, such as video recording and computer digitisation, to measure human movement and improve athletic performance (Seshadri et al., 2017). New integrated technologies also enable coaches and doctors to gain a better understanding of the physical demands of athletes (ibid.).

Wearables and smartphones offer an easy way to objectively measure sports parameters such as physical activity or the number of daily steps (Johnston et al., 2021). As these technologies become more widespread, coaches, athletes and researchers are very interested in using these devices to change behaviour (ibid.). However, when using wearables, it should be noted that the validity of many devices has not been rigorously and transparently assessed, so the data provided may provide insight but is sometimes not very accurate (Johnston et al., 2021).

Wearables as medical technologies can measure physical condition, record physiological parameters or even inform about the schedule of medication intake (Yetisen et al., 2018). The ever-evolving technologies also provide continuous medical data to actively track patients' metabolic status, diagnosis and treatment (ibid.).

Wearable devices are already successful and promising when it comes to managing and monitoring athletes' recovery and training (Seshadri et al., 2017). The development of a single device that can measure both biometric traits such as stress and biovital traits such as lactic acid could be the next standard in sports medicine (ibid.).

The development of patient-centred wearable technologies and their integration into randomised clinical trials will facilitate the development of safe and effective approaches in sports medicine in the future (Yetisen et al., 2018). The possibilities of wearable technologies in data analysis are the next frontier for sports medicine (Seshadri et al., 2017).

Wearables will also play a major role at FIBO 2024. The Exercise is Medicine Summit as part of the FIBO Campus will focus on "Revolutionised Rhythms: The Prevalence, Perspectives, and Precision of Wearable Technologies in Sports and Exercise Medicine". The presentation by Dr Cailbhe Doherty will be held in English.

Experts like Dr Doherty will also be presenting the latest insights from tech at the Future Forum in Hall 7.

References

Johnston, W., Judice, P.B., Molina García, P., Mühlen, J. M., Skovgaard, E. L., Stang, J., Schumann, M., Cheng, S., Bloch, W., Brønd, J. C., Ekelund, U., Grøntved, A.,Caulfield, B., Ortega, F. B. & Sardinha, L. B. (2021). Recommendations for determining the validity of consumer wearable and smartphone step count: expert statement and checklist of the INTERLIVE network. British Journal of Sports Medicine 55, 780-793.

Seshadri, D. R., Drummond, C., Craker, J., Rowbottom, J. R. and Voos, J. E. (2017). Wearable Devices for Sports: New Integrated Technologies Allow Coaches, Physicians, and Trainers to Better Understand the Physical Demands of Athletes in Real time. IEEE Pulse, 8(1), 38-43. doi: 10.1109/MPUL.2016.2627240.

Yetisen, K., Martinez-Hurtado, J. L., Ünal, B., Khademhosseini, A. & Butt, H. (2018): Adv. Mater 30, 1706910. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201706910