Fitbit has expanded its open API, aimed at the health tech industry, to include in-depth health metrics.
The open API allows health researchers to create large-scale studies using Fitbit devices. However, so far the data accessible to research teams has been quite limited.
Fitbit will now allow researchers to access blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), respiratory rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep logs, dramatically increasing the scope and scale of studies .
These metrics are in addition to activity, body fat and weight, heart rate, sleep, and food logging, which were previously part of the API.
This clearly allows researchers to engage with much more in-depth studies and take advantage of the prevalence of Fitbit devices.
Using Fitbit devices for studies is more natural and comfortable than most medical-grade instruments, which can be bulky or uncomfortable for participants for long periods. And Fitbits will generally last about five days on a single charge.
And the works have already begun.
King’s College London and Health Drive Digital are already working on studies with the additional metrics of the extended API.
Dr Amos Folarin, Senior Leader of the Software Development Group at King’s College London, discussed the type of studies that could benefit from using more advanced metrics:
“We explore many of these metrics in ongoing research, in areas ranging from stress detection to seizure detection for epilepsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and COVID-19.”
Using the API can also be useful away from large-scale studies and in things like corporate wellness. Corporate wellness has often focused only on getting employees moving, through things like incentivized step challenges, but tapping into deeper insights could help flag those under stress.
Dr Joe Pearson, Head of Medical Office at Health Drive Digital, said: “We are moving from a reactive service, which is poor for health and business outcomes, to a proactive and preventative service…improving the health of the workforce across the UK.”
While it’s not the sexiest Fitbit ad ever, wearables have a lot to offer in terms of training massive studies, which can help advance medical understanding in ways previously impossible.
Apple has done the same with ResearchKit and CareKit, and leveraging this additional data from Fitbit’s API will only make wearables more beneficial over time.