Validation of Fitbit Measurements in Hospitalized General Medicine Patients

Validation of Fitbit Measurements in Hospitalized General Medicine Patients

Patients admitted to the General Internal Medicine ward are sick and in need of monitoring that cannot be provided at home or treatments best administered in hospital. Standard care currently includes vital signs measurements and in some cases ECG. Wearable devices that continuous monitor patients could provided added information to improve the care of inpatients. This could include more monitoring and catching deterioration before it happens. Wearables have been shown to be largely accurate for monitoring heart rate, however it is still necessary to determine if they can reliably measure sleep, activity, and other health metrics. For this, study investigators are evaluating the validity of FitBit Sense 2 (or other FitBit devices) for measurement of sleep, activity, heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation.

Subject inclusion criteria.

• General internal medicine patients admitted to General Medicine Wards.
• Able to consent.
• 18 years of age or older

Subject exclusion criteria.

• Patients who are purely palliative "comfort measures only" where measuring vital signs would not be appropriate and will be excluded.
• To reduce the potential risk of transmitting nosocomial infections, patients under contact precautions for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile infections will also be excluded.
• This study will also exclude patients at risk of vascular compromise of the arm or leg on which the wearable device was to be placed, such as patients with deep venous thrombosis, dialysis fistulas, and severe upper extremity trauma.
• Expected discharge less than 24 hours