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USC Research Sees Smartglasses as The Ultimate mHealth Wearable

An mHealth study by USC's Center for Body Computing argues that smartglasses can improve health and wellness and patient engagement, and they're more comfortable than other wearables.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- The University of Southern California is making another pitch for smartglasses, saying the mHealth wearable offers a strong form factor for health and wellness and patient engagement.

The latest argument comes in a study by USC’s Center for Body Computing and smartglasses developer VSP Global. The 12-week project, involving some 284 USC beneficiary employees who regularly wore glasses, found that smartglasses can improve activity levels if combined with timely motivational messages and a link to social networking.

The study also found more patient engagement if rewards were tied to philanthropic causes.

"One in every five Americans wears a health tracker but there was no research that took a look at what motivates engagement, until now," Leslie Saxon, MD, founder and executive director of the USC CBC and the project’s lead researcher, said in a press release accompanying the study, recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine’s NEJM Catalyst newsletter.

"Since the average study participant fell into a group considered overweight - which can lead to increasing health issues such as diabetes and heart disease - it was illuminating to find digital coaching via the app and an altruistic connection helped these participants maintain their engagement or even increase their activity in some areas," she added.

READ MORE: New Wearables Study Misses the Point on mHealth

mHealth has been setting its sights on tech-enabled eyewear for some time now, beginning ostensibly with Google Glass and more recently focusing on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality platforms, which are being used to help hospital patients deal with stress and pain and even to gauge whether an athlete has sustained a concussion.

But while the redesigned Google Glass and others in that market have focused on clinical users and uses, Saxon has been targeting the consumer-facing market. Her argument is that eyeglasses are a more comfortable and engaging form factor than activity bands or smartwatches – especially for the estimated 65 percent of Americans who currently wear glasses and the additional 19 percent who wear contact lenses.

“It makes sense,” Ahmed Albaiti, CEO of the digital health consulting firm Medullan, told mHealthIntelligence in a February 2016 interview. “They’re more prevalent than watches, and lots of people are wearing them already.”

“There are a whole lot of things that you can dig into [in mHealth monitoring] when you de-couple from the wrist,” he added.

Saxon launched her study last year in a partnership with VSP Global, whose innovation studio, called The Shop, created a set of eyeglasses with an embedded gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. The Level glasses, which debuted in an early form in 2015 and have since been modified, can track steps, calories burned and activity time.

READ MORE: The Evolving Role of mHealth in Medication Management and Adherence

Through the study, Saxon and her team found that users increased their step counts by as much as 25 percent a day when their smartglasses included scheduled messages from a digital coach. Those numbers also increased if the user could access a social network to share results and give or receive encouragement (or perhaps, do a little trash-talking).

The last aspect of the study focused on motivation. Saxon and her researchers found that users boosted their daily steps if their corporate rewards program included a connection to charitable giving – in this case, VSP’s Eyes of Hope initiative, which donates eye exams and prescription glasses to those in need.

"While we cannot say we've cracked the code for long-term motivation of physical activity, we still learned a tremendous amount: digital prompts, social support, philanthropy, older age, and life satisfaction created the most impact in motivating our participants," Glenn Fox, PhD, Head of Design, Strategy and Outreach at the USC Performance Science Institute, said in the press release. "We now know these are all keys to increased engagement with fitness trackers and deserve further investigation."

Saxon and her team see a bright future for smartglasses. They point to data compiled by Juniper Research which indicates the smartglasses market should see continued growth among consumer wearables, reaching 11 percent of the total market in 2021.

One of the challenges still to be tackled is getting the healthcare provider community to buy into the program. Two of Saxon’s research partners say smartglasses combined with healthcare guidance can push the needle on certain clinical outcomes, especially with research indicating visual impairment and blindness will double in the US by 2050.

READ MORE: An mHealth Dilemma: Can Wearables Generate Medical-Grade Data?

"Refractive errors and uncorrectable vision impairment are positively associated with poor self-assessed health and poor psychological health in some populations," noted Gloria Chiu, OD, FAAO, FSLS, who led the study's eye care team for the USC Roski Eye Institute.

"If we can address uncorrected vision impairment and encourage healthier behavior through the use of digital tools such as the Level smart glasses, this is the future we envision and want to encourage,” added Rohit Varma, MD, MPH, the Roski Eye Institute’s director and dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Some see uses for the smartglasses beyond the eyes.

"Eyewear is one of the few things worn by humans that's in close proximity to all five senses," Jay Sales, of VSB’s The Shop, said in a 2016 interview. "It's not completely understood how much information can be derived through the eyes or from eye care. We have direct access to the cardiovascular and nervous system through the eyes."

“(A)fter all, we’re sitting right next to the brain,” added Albaiti.  

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