Wearables Help Protect the Health of Athletes on the Field

Dr. Sanjiv M. Narayan is a Southern California cardiologist who has developed innovative atrial fibrillation care modalities that were acquired by Abbott Laboratories. With a strong interest in technologies that make life easier and more convenient, Dr. Sanjiv Narayan follows developments in the wearables sphere. 

Athletics presents one of the most dynamic areas of growth in the wearables market, as amateur and pro athletes seek to monitor health and enhance their competitive edge. A major trend is in the development of smart fabrics that gather essential performance data without adding weight. 

Information gathered includes critical aspects of body function, such as exhaustion and stress levels. With Sudden Adult Death Syndrome a rising concern within the professional sports sphere, these technologies promise to identify potential overtraining issues before they reach critical, health-adverse levels. 

Examples of such so-called preventive health sports technologies include the RFID Zebra player-tracking system, which was introduced throughout the NFL in 2016. In addition, Major League Baseball recently approved a Motus Global compression sleeve used for tracking pitcher’s arm workloads and a Zephyr heart-monitoring strap.

ACC to Work with Chinese Health Professionals

A professor of medicine at Stanford University, Dr. Sanjiv M. Narayan focuses on research and patient care related to heart arrhythmias and serves as director of the Electrophysiology Training Program and co-director of the Electrophysiology Service. Apart from his work at Stanford, Dr. Sanjiv Narayan is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). 

Earlier this year, the ACC entered into a partnership with several Chinese hospitals that will see doctors in the central and eastern provinces of the country receive training and education on how to prevent heart disease, as well as how to diagnose and effectively treat heart-related conditions. Most of the information will be delivered in lecture settings and other educational forums. 

The educational effort is sponsored by the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation’s Every Heartbeat Matters and will target Kunming in Yunnan Province, Wuhan in Hubei Province, and Fuzhou in Fujian Province. Educators also will develop patient-related materials to help raise awareness about heart disease among the general population.