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Wearable sensor technology enables objective data collection of direct human interactions. The authors review sociometric wearable devices (SWD) and their application in healthcare. Human interactions captured by wearable sensors have been shown to correlate with social constructs such as teamwork and productivity in the office. Application of SWD in the field of healthcare requires special considerations: validation studies have shown technological disadvantages in acute medical settings. Application of SWD in healthcare should be considered based on the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology. SWD can also play an important role in investigation of human interaction and epidemic spread. When study designs and methodologies are carefully considered, incorporation of SWD in healthcare research has promising potential for new insights.

Background Use of wearable sensor technology for studying human teamwork behavior is expected to generate a better understanding of the interprofessional interactions between health care professionals. Objective We used wearable sociometric sensor badges to study how intensive care unit (ICU) health care professionals interact and are socially connected. Methods We studied the face-to-face interaction data of 76 healthcare professionals in the ICU at Mie University Hospital collected over 4 weeks via wearable sensors. Results We detail the spatiotemporal distributions of staff members’ inter- and intraprofessional active face-to-face interactions, thereby generating a comprehensive visualization of who met whom, when, where, and for how long in the ICU. Social network analysis of these active interactions, concomitant with centrality measurements, revealed that nurses constitute the core members of the network, while doctors remain in the periphery. Conclusions Our social network analysis using the comprehensive ICU interaction data obtained by wearable sensors has revealed the leading roles played by nurses within the professional communication network.