Frameworks: integration to digital networks and beyond

Wearable health technologies are becoming pervasive in modern society, due to cost, marketing strategies and the gamification of health. Consequently, these devices have become an interest to healthcare researchers and medical professionals. However, these devices typically come with their own proprietary software—standalone technology that makes daily use for patient management difficult. Challenges surrounding data access present steep learning curves and barriers to entry for many researchers, with computer science commonly being a prerequisite.

This chapter explores frameworks for wearable technologies and does so from two angles. The first angle explores the concept of frameworks from the position of systems and data management, that is, software frameworks. In this regard, the chapter presents the challenges and complexities researchers may face when attempting to extract data from these devices. We present several approaches to that researchers can use to collect data, which cater for different levels of technological capability. In presenting these approaches, the lack of digital frameworks, in the context of standardization and governance, is identified. This presents the second angle of frameworks explored by this chapter. There is a need for a National Digital Framework that is tailor-made for wearable technology, but the complexity and heterogeneity of current digital frameworks is indicative of how challenging this process will be. By exposing these needs and presenting researchers with a range of approaches for wearable technology data extraction, it is hoped that researchers of any specialism can drive the research and development of wearable health technologies and the frameworks that underpin them.