AMA releases survey: Doctors still rarely use smartwatch data

The American Medical Association has released a new international survey, and the picture is pretty clear: data from smartwatches and fitness trackers still rarely makes it into routine care.

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These devices can track heart rate, sleep, daily activity, and in some cases even warn of possible atrial fibrillation. But the AMA found that in no country surveyed did clinical use of that data rise above 6%. In the U.S., just 6% of physicians said they’d incorporated wearable data into practice, even though 46% of U.S. adults own a wearable and 59% of those owners have already talked about that data with a healthcare provider.

The holdup isn’t lack of interest. It’s the healthcare system’s back-end mess: fuzzy reimbursement rules, questions about legal risk and data accuracy, packed clinical workflows, and data formats that don’t line up across watches, rings, chest straps, and electronic health record systems.

That gap matters. The report points to a market expected to hit $109 billion in 2026, with 614 million wearable shipments worldwide. FDA-cleared features for atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea could help push adoption forward, but they still don’t replace full diagnostic testing.

If you use a wearable to keep tabs on your health, this one should be on your radar, especially with Medicare’s 10-year ACCESS pilot now starting to reimburse some wearables and apps used for chronic disease management.

You can read the AMA survey findings and the Medicare ACCESS pilot details online.