Role of Wearable Devices in the Current Era of Healthcare

Abstract

Wearable technologies, including smartwatches, fitness trackers, wearable electrocardiographic monitoring systems, and biosensor-based devices, are increasingly being integrated into modern healthcare because of their ability to provide continuous and real-time physiological monitoring. These devices can support early mobilization, facilitate remote patient monitoring, encourage patient engagement, and aid in the early detection of postoperative complications. In cardiac surgical patients, wearable devices may help identify arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, monitor heart rate variability, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, sleep quality, and physical activity levels, thereby enabling clinicians to recognize physiological deterioration at an early stage. Continuous monitoring through wearable systems may contribute to faster intervention, reduction in hospital stay, lower readmission rates, and improved postoperative recovery outcomes. Beyond cardiac surgery, wearable technologies have demonstrated potential applications in cardiology, diabetes management, pulmonary rehabilitation, oncology, sports medicine, neurological disorders, and mental health monitoring. These devices may improve chronic disease management by enabling long-term monitoring outside the hospital setting and promoting personalized healthcare delivery. Furthermore, wearable technologies support telemedicine and home-based rehabilitation programs, which have become increasingly important in recent years. Despite these promising advantages, several limitations continue to restrict their widespread clinical adoption. Challenges related to device accuracy, motion artifacts, battery life, sensor reliability, patient compliance, interoperability, and data privacy remain important concerns. Additional large-scale studies are required to validate their safety, reliability, cost-effectiveness, and long-term clinical benefits. This review discusses the evolution, applications, benefits, and limitations of wearable devices, with special emphasis on their role in postoperative cardiac care and remote health monitoring.



Received: 13 February 2026 | Revised: 8 May 2026 | Accepted: 27 May 2026



Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.



Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.



Author Contribution Statement

Abisho Russal Starlet: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Project administration. Anshuman Darbari: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Shubham Singh Rawat: Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Ishan Jhalani: Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization.