Employees

The Journey of Your Biometric Data to the Alerts App

Karen Cornelissen

August 27, 2021

Hello, and welcome to Alerts! We’re so glad to have you on board. By now, you’ve likely set up an account, filled out relevant account information, set a goal, and perhaps you’re either waiting for a wearable device to come in the mail or you’ve already connected one to the platform. As your experience with Alerts gets underway, we want to provide you with a quick overview of what happens to your biometric data between its point of generation in your body and when you can see it in the Alerts app. First let’s talk about the type of data Adyptation collects and biometrics as a subset of that data.

What types of information does Adyptation collect?

To create an intricate data profile on you, your health progress, and your treatment strategies, we collect a variety of information. There’s data for which you provide a direct input, and it may only change periodically if you login and make changes. A good example of that would be prescription information if you choose to track that. We collect other information from you on an ongoing basis. We leverage a survey to collect subjective data, or information that captures your perception of something, like pain, energy, wellbeing, or stress, and we prompt you for that information once a day. We also collect biometric data from your body with wearable sensors.

What are biometrics?

Biometrics are body measurements, and they are the things that make you who you are and that make you distinguishable from someone else. Examples of biometrics include things like your DNA, fingerprints, blood pressure, heart variability, and so forth. Sensor technology gives us the ability to “listen” to this information and record it. We track specific biometrics to help Alerts understand you, your lifestyle, and how your body is responding to your lifestyle and your treatments. We leverage a handful of sensors to pick up data on things like sleep (hours slept) and activity (which we gage through step count).

You are not in control of your data if you do not know where it goes, who has it, and how you can get it once you generate it.

What is the journey of my biometric data to Alerts?

1. Your body generates biometrics.

Your body is always communicating to us how it is doing through shifts in biometric patterns and spikes in inflammation.

2. Your wearable sensor collects the data.

Sensors pick up this information, record it, and store it.

3. The sensor device transmits the data to its app.

When and only when you sync the app for your device, the sensor in your watch or ring transmits the data it is collecting to the device app (i.e., Fitbit app, Oura app, etc.), where the device maker stores and displays the information to you.

4. Adyptation picks up the data from the device app wirelessly.

Once an hour every hour, Adyptation checks and picks up your biometric data from the device maker app and stores it.

5. Adyptation stores and displays your biometric data
in the Alerts app.

Once we have your data, we process it and display it back to you. This information is available to you the graphs section of the app and on the landing page.

What’s key for you to know here is (1) that your data can sit in your device and (2) that if you do not sync your device app, which prompts your device app to pick up the data from your sensor, then Adyptation has no way to pick up your biometric data. We can’t pick up your biometric data directly from the sensor in your wearable device. We can only collect the information from your device app, so you need to sync your device app regularly for Alerts to have the latest information.

Best Practice Tip

Sync your device app regularly to make sure you are providing a steady, consistent stream of data to Alerts. That way, when you open the Alerts app, you are looking at the most up-to-date version of our analysis on your health progress that is possible. The more consistent you are about using Alerts, responding to your survey, and feeding in biometric data, the more Adyptation can provide precise analysis. In addition to wearing your wearable sensor regularly, try syncing your device app once a day.

Now that we’ve reviewed all the stops between generation and display in the Alerts app, let’s talk about why we think you should have this information in the first place.

Why should you know about the journey of your data?

You need to be familiar with the journey of your data because knowledge is power. A basic understanding of the data journey:

1. Gives you more control over your data.

We want to empower you to gain more control over your health with data-driven insights, and an important part of that is helping you be an informed consumer. You are not in control of your data if you do not know where it goes, who has it, and how you can get it once you generate it. In general, you ought to be able to request or download a copy of your data from the maker of your wearable device. You can also request a copy of your data from Adyptation.

2. Enables you to have the best possible experience with Alerts.

Understanding this part of the data pipeline doesn’t just arm you with an awareness of what is happening to your data. This information also helps you have a productive experience with our software. If you are diligent about wearing your sensor device and syncing your app, you know you and your doctor are working with the latest information in Alerts.

3. Enables you to troubleshoot more quickly and effectively.

This knowledge gives you more insight into what may be happening if something goes wrong between your wearable device and the Alerts app. Now you know where to look along the data pipeline in your efforts to resolve the problem.

Having Issues Seeing Data Display in Alerts?

You may be in a spot where you expect to see data on the Alerts platform, but you don’t. What gives? Any number of things could be the culprit, but here are a few things to investigate. Primarily, issues with seeing data on Alerts stem from the sensor hardware, how consistently you wear your device and respond to surveys, and the data connection point between the device app and the Alerts platform. For instance, your wearable device may lack sufficient charge, you may not be wearing it consistently, or you may need to reconnect your device to Alerts. If you are a brand-new user, please remember that it takes a week of responding to the daily survey before you see a score. For a full list of things to check, visit our Support page under Why Isn’t My Data Showing Up on Alerts?

There you have it. A quick overview of what happens to your biometric data between its point of generation in your body and when you can see it in the Alerts app empowers you to be more in control of your data and have a better experience with our software.

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This article was last updated on August 27, 2021

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