Common wearable devices, such as Apple Watch and Fitbit, can identify, differentiate and predict flare-ups in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to researchers at Mount Sinai Health System in New York.

Findings from the first-of-its-kind study, which were published (www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(25)00013-7/abstract) in the journal Gastroenterology, suggest that wearable technology can predict the subsequent development of flares in IBD, enabling continuous disease monitoring through widely available commercial devices.

“Current disease-monitoring methods rely on patients directly interacting with their doctors, either through office visits, blood or stool testing, or by undergoing a colonoscopy,” said first author Robert Hirten from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (www.mountsinai.org). “These methods also only assess the disease at one point in time, and can often be invasive or inconvenient. Our study shows that commonly used wearable devices such as Apple Watches, Fitbits and Oura Rings, can be effective tools in monitoring chronic inflammatory diseases like IBD. This creates an opportunity to monitor the disease remotely outside the health care setting, in a continuous manner, and potentially in real time.”

IBD is a chronic condition that causes inflammation in the intestines and affects more than 2.4 million people in the USA. Mount Sinai researchers enrolled more than 300 participants with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, the two major types of IBD, from 36 states. The participants wore devices, answered daily symptom surveys, and provided blood and stool assessments of inflammation.

The researchers found that circadian patterns of heart rate variability (a marker of nervous system function), along with heart rate, oxygenation and daily activity, all measured by the wearable devices, were significantly altered when inflammation or symptoms were present. Moreover, these physiological markers could detect inflammation even in the absence of symptoms and distinguish whether symptoms were driven by active inflammation in the intestines. Importantly, the researchers found these metrics measured by wearables changed up to seven weeks before flares developed.

The researchers are applying similar approaches to other chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and leveraging artificial intelligence to develop algorithms using wearable device data to predict flares on an individualised basis.

“These findings open the door to leveraging wearable technology for health monitoring and disease management in innovative ways we haven’t previously considered,” Hirten said. “Our hope is that, in the future, this approach will significantly enhance the quality of life of our patients.”