From Ambition to Implementation - are Wearables Really Taking Hold in the NHS 10-Year Plan?
Getting wearables used more widely in health services
The UK’s Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England (July 2025) marks a defining moment for digital health and especially for the growing field of wearable technology.
For innovators, clinicians, and researchers working to connect personal health data with clinical decision-making, the plan sets a clear direction, wearables are no longer peripheral, they’re central to how the NHS intends to deliver care by 2035. Nearly a year on the key question is no longer what the NHS plans to do but what is actually happening and what still needs to change.
Taking Wearables From Policy Priority to Early Adoption
The plan positioned wearables as one of five transformative technologies alongside AI, genomics, robotics, and data.
That signal was important as it marked a shift in providing care from “consumer wellness devices” to clinical tools capable of supporting decision-making
Today, we are starting to see early movement particularly within NHS England priorities
Virtual wards are expanding rapidly, using remote monitoring to support patients at home
Wearables and connected devices are increasingly used in cardiovascular and respiratory pathways
Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are piloting preventive and community-based monitoring models
This is not yet universal but it is real progress.
From Hospital to Home is Progress, but Not Yet Transformation
One of the most significant ambitions of the plan is the shift from hospital-based care to neighbourhood, digitally enabled care
We can already see the foundations being laid
The NHS App continues to expand as a patient access point
Remote monitoring is becoming more common in post-acute and long-term condition management
Digital-first pathways are emerging across primary and community care
However, the reality is uneven and adoption varies significantly across regions
Data integration is still fragmented
Clinician workflows are not consistently adapted to continuous data
Infrastructure and workforce constraints remain limiting factors
The direction is clear but delivery is still catching up with ambition.
The Data Challenge - From Measurement to Meaning
A central assumption of the NHS plan is that more data leads to better care but wearable data introduces a critical challenge
How do we move from continuous measurement to clinically meaningful insight?
The NHS is beginning to address this with
Growing emphasis on real-world evidence generation
Evolving frameworks from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for digital technologies
Increased focus on interoperability standards such as FHIR
Yet some important gaps remain
Variability in data quality (especially with PPG-based measurements)
Limited clinical confidence in interpreting wearable-derived signals
Lack of standardisation across devices and platforms
Without addressing these, wearable data risks becoming abundant but underutilised
AI, Prevention and the Role of Continuous Monitoring
The NHS ambition to become the “most AI-enabled healthcare system in the world” depends heavily on wearable data because AI needs continuous, longitudinal data, early signals of deterioration and contextual understanding of patient behaviour and physiology
Wearables are uniquely positioned to provide this and we are beginning to see
Early AI-supported triage and monitoring tools
Increased interest in predictive models for long-term conditions
Integration of behavioural and physiological data
But again, the bottleneck is not data generation, it is data trust, validation and clinical usability.
Where We Are Now (2026)
What’s moving
Remote monitoring is scaling (especially via virtual wards)
Digital access via the NHS App is expanding
ICS-led innovation is driving local progress
Policy alignment across NHS, NIHR and NICE is strengthening
What’s still holding things back
Inconsistent infrastructure and integration
Limited clinician confidence in wearable data
Gaps in validation and standardisation
Operational pressures across the system
The Missing Link that is Bridging Data and Decision-Making
The NHS has made its position clear that wearables will be part of routine care by 2035 but getting there requires more than devices and data pipelines.
We need
Clinical-grade validation of wearable signals
Transparent handling of uncertainty in physiological data
Intelligent integration across multiple data sources
Tools that translate data into actionable clinical insight
A Decade of Opportunity and Responsibility
For innovators, researchers, and digital health companies, this is a defining moment.
The opportunity is clear in that the NHS is actively creating the conditions for wearable-enabled care. But so is the responsibility to ensure that wearable data is accurate, interpretable and clinically usable
At KLES Digital Health, our work focuses on exactly this challenge improving the quality and interpretability of wearable data, understanding uncertainty and how we understand signals such as PPG signals, so that clinicians can trust and use data in real-world decision-making. Ultimately, success won’t be measured by how much data we collect but by how effectively and efficiently we turn that data into better patient outcomes.
References:
Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England (Department of Health and Social Care, July 2025)
NICE Technology Appraisals (2024–2025)
Health Data Research UK (HDRUK)
Our Future Health and NIHR Infrastructure Programmes