The US wants a wearable for all. Experts say it won't fix the health crisis

Digital Trends

13 hours ago

'My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years,' Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 26th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the House Subcommittee on Health during a recent hearing.
When Congressman Troy Balderson asked whether consumers should have access to these tools, referencing wearable technology in light of the 21st Century Cures Act, the privacy risks, and the health benefits, Kennedy replied that they 'absolutely' should.
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The chief of the nationwide Health and Human Services revealed that his department is planning a huge campaign to tell more Americans about the benefits of wearables. The scheme could even entail the government bearing the cost of wearable health devices, and the agency has even outlined its steps to attract contractors and get the plan in motion.
'Wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda. Making America Healthy Again,' Kennedy told the Congressmen. 'We are exploring ways those costs can be paid for.'
The plans are ambitious, but at the same time, they have raised a healthy bunch of concerns. I talked to a few health experts about the campaign, and in the light of research that has come out in the domain of wearable sciences, it seems the move is a step in the right direction. That is, assuming, it is implemented with proper expertise and caution.
What are the wearable plans?
According to the contract and solicitation form drafted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the goal is to 'popularize technology like wearables as cool, modern tools for measuring diet impact and taking control of your own health.' According to RFK Jr., this will be the biggest campaign in the agency's history and it aims to help Americans take control of their health.
'They can begin to make good decisions about their diets, about their physical activity, about the way they live their lives,' RFK Jr. said during the hearing. Wearable devices, especially those sold by Apple, have saved a lot of lives, in addition to helping people track their health.
My colleague recently wrote about how the Apple Watch detected an episode of heart attack, which eventually required angioplasty surgery. Moreover, the Medical ID feature helped paramedics make the right decision about emergency medications on at least two life-threatening occasions.
The AFib detection system and emergency calling features have saved a ton of lives, from a preventive aspect as well as in emergency scenarios. Then there's the whole ecosystem of tracking tools, which log everything from sleep hours and heart ECG signals to the number of steps walked and workout progress, too.
The overarching theme is not just to put a sensor on a person's body that is capable of measuring biomarkers and workouts, but to ultimately inculcate good habits that can reap long-term health benefits. 'They can take responsibility. They can see, as you know, what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates, and a number of other metrics, as they eat it,' RFK Jr. told the Congressmen, citing personal anecdotes where people around him used glucose monitors to turn their health around.
It is not clear what kind of wearable devices the government is targeting, or even the form factor. But the focus seems to be on awareness and intervention, instead of curing diseases. The health secretary gave an example of the uber-expensive Ozempic medicine for weight loss, and how an $80 wearable can help people achieve the same results in the long run.
Another area of focus is wearables acting as an enabler of convenient health tracking and assessment for older people. 'For elderly Americans who can't leave their homes, but they can find out what's happening to their health, without going to see a doctor, or go to urgent care, or go to an emergency room,' Kennedy explained at the hearing.
What do experts tell us?
Alexandra Kharazi, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Southern California Surgical, tells Digital Trends that wearables make it easier for people to understand their health using data points and can motivate people to live healthier lives. She, however, warned that these mass-market wearable devices should be seen as health guides and not medical devices.
'Many of my patients have found it helpful to track things like heart rate, activity levels, and even sleep patterns. Seeing progress over time can encourage better habits,' Dr. Kharazi tells me. Talking about heart issues, in particular, she pointed out that a smartwatch can detect irregular heart rhythms, which can be a sign of serious health conditions that require expert medical attention.
'If you're managing a serious health condition, you'll still need professional monitoring,' she mentioned. She highlighted how these wearables collect a wide range of data that is algorithmically processed, but they are not as accurate as medical-grade devices that are recommended by a certified doctor, especially to people who are already living with serious health conditions that require precise monitoring.
Then there are well-documented issues with accuracy while using light-based sensors on various skin tones and tattoos. But for the masses, she argued that they are a meaningful intervention that can help inculcate healthier lifestyle habits. 'They give a window into how your body responds to daily life — and that knowledge can be a powerful motivator for positive change,' Dr. Kharazi concludes.
As per the 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update report released by the American Heart Association, heart-related diseases are the leading cause of death in the country, accounting for more than the combined toll from cancer-related and road accident casualties.
Wearables, when used in a positive fashion, can help reduce the burden. Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., FAHA, Chief Medical Officer for Prevention for the American Heart Association, told me that smartwatches can play a complementary role in helping people track their heart activity, sleep habits, and activity patterns — all of which add up and lead the way to a healthy lifestyle.
Playing it right
Wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness bands can be meaningfully valuable 'to the extent such tools are actively and accurately providing 'health insights' as part of the data collection/dashboarding, patients/individuals can become more aware of their health/body and the things that drive the outputs from these wearables,' Dr. Sanchez told Digital Trends.
Awareness is one of the biggest issues. In a recent interaction with a gut disease veteran at the Holy Family Hospital in India's national capital, I was told that wearables are merely lifestyle interventions. Until a person decides to change what they put inside their body and shed sedentary habits, a smartwatch or fitness band won't offer any immediate benefits.
Moreover, making sense of the data collected by a smartwatch is not a straightforward process. People must be educated about these digital measurements. But more than that, taking appropriate action after interpreting the biomarker data collected by a wearable is the challenge, something that requires proper consultation with a healthcare expert.
Dr. Ahmad Ghayas Ansari, DM (Cardiology) at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, told Digital Trends that the best way forward is to share the data with your doctor, especially if you are recovering or living with a health condition. But if a wearable device can simplify readings into warnings or insights, the way smartwatches from Apple or Samsung warn users about abnormal spikes in their biosignals, we might see a tangible impact.
'For the masses, who lack proper knowledge of cardiac and respiratory issues, I would still recommend commercially available devices such as the Apple Watch,' he tells Digital Trends. At the end of the day, what matters is making meaningful food and lifestyle changes. Wearables are just going to make it a tad easier, but they won't solve the whole problem for an individual, or the entire country.