Today's Edition
SADEQ ALKHOORI (ABU DHABI)
A doctor's appointment captures a patient's health at one moment. A wearable device like a smartwatch could offer a fuller picture of what happens between visits, recording patterns in sleep, activity and recovery that might otherwise go unnoticed.
But how useful are those readings when a doctor has to make a decision?
“A consultation gives a doctor a snapshot. A wearable gives them the weeks in between: sleep, activity, glucose trends, recovery,” Rohan Sawhney, Partner at Deloitte Middle East, told Aletihad.
“If someone’s trend starts drifting, that can prompt a conversation long before symptoms appear,” he said.
His comments follow an October 20 whitepaper from Future Health, developed with Deloitte, exploring how wearable data could support preventive care in Abu Dhabi. It highlights potential applications in diabetes, obesity, maternal health and fall-risk monitoring among older adults.
Abu Dhabi already has some of the infrastructure. Its Sahatna app lets users connect wearable devices and access health records held in Malaffi. The Malaffi system also has a clinician-facing panel that can display activity data from connected wearables.
Access, however, is different from evidence that a reading should guide treatment.
Sawhney said patterns become more useful when assessed alongside laboratory results, symptoms and medical history, rather than examined in isolation.
“Doctors don’t want raw data, they want it simplified and validated, because incomplete information can lead to over- or under-diagnosis,” he said.
A January 2026 review in npj Digital Medicine, examining 82 studies of Apple Watch measurements, found that accuracy differed between health indicators.
Dedicated continuous glucose monitors measure different information from general-purpose smartwatches. An unusual reading would still require clinical assessment.
Abu Dhabi is investigating what continuous monitoring could achieve. On October 21, the Department of Health and WHOOP announced a 24-month research programme examining whether wearable insights and coaching could improve heart and metabolic health. Its results remain to be established.
Sawhney said incompatible device systems, privacy concerns and the volume of information reaching doctors could complicate wider use.
“Too many pilots hand clinicians a flood of data with no clear protocol for what to do with it,” he said.
He added that patients should understand how their information will be used, who can access it and how consent can be withdrawn.
The whitepaper proposes a phased approach, beginning with common standards and pilot projects, followed by integration into healthcare workflows and, eventually, broader clinical use. Sawhney stressed that the roadmap is not an official implementation commitment.
“The real shift is from experimenting to making it part of how the system works,” he said.
For patients, the prospect is care informed by changes between appointments. Whether it becomes reality will depend on turning everyday measurements into clinically reliable information without compromising privacy.
