Our Research

BBC Worldview

Interview

Umbrella Review

Link to article: Here

After including 24 systematic reviews we found:

Wearables are very good at measuring heart rate (MAPE approx ± 3)
Tends to underestimate energy expenditure (calories burned) but errors can range widely (-21.27% to 14.76%)
Tend to underestimate step count, with a wide range of errors.
V02 max is overestimated.

Apple Heart Rate Variability (HRV) validation:

Read article: Here

The Apple watch HRV values differed from the gold standard by 28.88% on average. For this to be valid we aim for this to be no more than 10% in free-living conditions.
For resting heart rate the Apple watches performed better with a MAPE of 5.91%

Currently under review

V02 max validation study: V02 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize per minute. Wearables claim they can accurately predict or measure this. So with this paper, we aim to validate the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 for measuring V02 max. This is currently under peer review.

Privacy policy review: All of the wearable device companies have long and hard to read privacy policies, that most customers don't actually read. With this paper we wanted to assess whether these companies are following best practices for data protection, security, privacy, etc. This is currently under peer review.

Integrated health indices: Most wearable devices and apps will present with you readiness, recovery, or wellness scores. This scores or indices combine multiple different biometrics for example heart rate, step count, energy expenditure, sleep, etc to assess your overall health, readiness, or recovery. But little is known about their accuracy and if they are actually useful. This review aimed at detailing all the health indices, whether the metrics used make sense, and if any validation has taken place. This is currently under peer review