AMA survey finds barriers to wearable data adoption

CHICAGO – While interest in wearable health technologies is high, their integration into routine clinical care continues to be limited by workflow, reimbursement and trust issues, according to a new international survey from the American Medical Association (AMA). The 2026 International Physician Survey on Consumer Wearables, conducted by the AMA’s Center for Digital Health and AI and Medscape, surveyed 2,222 physicians in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Most physicians, 97%, reported reviewing wearable data in some capacity, and large majorities said data from smartwatches, fitness trackers and biosensors offer at least some clinical advantage for patient care. Still, no country reported wearable-data integration rates above 6%, with adoption shaped more by reimbursement, workflow feasibility and regulatory conditions than by physician interest. “Physicians are seeing more wearable data in their daily practice and recognize its significant potential to improve clinical decision-making,” said AMA President Willie Underwood III, MD, MSc, MPH. “Across six advanced economies, however, intertwined regulatory, reimbursement, and implementation barriers leave potentially transformative data from being fully integrated into routine practice.” The survey found cardiologists and endocrinologists were most likely to use wearable data in clinical care, while primary care physicians, neurologists and pulmonologists reported greater challenges related to relevance, reliability and practicality. Integrated physicians reported greater confidence in interpreting wearable data and stronger trust in its accuracy, while nonintegrated physicians cited concerns about liability, false positives and workflow burden.

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