Tackling health inequality with wearable data

Chico heads up the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub, which uses digital technology to tackle health inequalities and help people live longer and healthier lives. South Yorkshire’s health outcomes are worse than many other places in the United Kingdom, and the region struggles with the burden of respiratory illness, high blood pressure, mental health problems and cardiovascular disease.

By hearing from a variety of voices, the hub is better placed to deliver relevant and accessible healthcare to all communities. “We have put a lot of attention on getting the voice of citizens, patients and carers into our work at the earliest stage,” he said. For example, the hub holds citizen juries “where we really seek the views of a diverse range of citizens in what we’re doing and get their advice” and also includes patients and community members on their funding boards. “They vote on which projects we should be awarding funding towards, and they’re incredibly valuable sources of wisdom,” he said.

Technology, such as smartphones or watches, can also yield new data points, from exposure to different environments to air pollution, heart rate and sleep cycle. “Bringing these two things together – the data we have at the moment but don’t connect, and the data we need but don’t collect – is where we’ll be able to develop some really exciting technologies,” Chico said.

However, Chico flags that maintaining participant privacy and data security are vital. “We would not take any data from people’s devices unless they give consent. We use the same governance and ethics regulations that we apply to medical trials and clinical studies,” he said. “Although I am confident that there are health benefits that can come from [new digital healthcare technologies], we prioritise security and privacy above everything else.”