Smartwatches and fitness bands are flying off the shelves. ResearchKit and HealthKit are the talk of the town. Patient-generated data is all the rage these days.

To which James Mault says, let's just slow down a little bit.

[See also: Qualcomm adds mobility to its 2net Platform ]

Mault is the chief medical officer for Qualcomm Life, which emerged in 2011 with 2net, a then-revolutionary new platform designed to link home-based monitors with healthcare providers. 

Mault says patient-generated data will play an important role in healthcare, and he applauds the advances that ResearchKit and HealthKit are fostering. But providers have to understand what consumer data can and can't do.

"There's a lot of excitement and enthusiasm out there," he said. "Right now it's such a nascent market, and the provider community is just now waking up to the fact that so much is possible."

[See also: Qualcomm shows off Qualcomm Life, 2net hub at HIMSS12]

But consider this: Consumer-generated health data is provided by the consumer, and as such holds the potential to be less-than-accurate. For example, a diabetic who enters his or her blood glucose readings or exercise and diet data for the day could be fudging things a bit to make it look better (or worse). And when was the last time you honestly reported your own weight, or the number of cookies you just snacked on, or the number of miles you ran?

"And that's OK – as long as the clinician is aware of that," Mault says. "That data is still going to be important."

Another example: Approximately 50 percent of spending on drugs in the United States is in specialty pharma – drugs for HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy, hepatitis, etc. One such drug requires twice-a-day doses for 12 weeks, at a cost of $50,000 a dose. One missed dose reduces the chances of being cured by 20 percent; two missed doses, and there's no chance. The whole treatment plan is a waste of time and money.

Little wonder, then, that pharma companies and providers want reliable data on who's taking their medication. And that would come from a platform that gathers adherence data from devices, rather than the patients.

"If you're going to make life-and-death decisions, you're going to want to use a medical grade solution," Mault says.

So while the market is bursting at the seams with devices and platforms that take consumer data, store it in the cloud and make it available to providers, those providers are looking for data integrity and software integrity. Make no mistake: Doctors do want that data, but they want to make sure it's accurate and useful to them.

Mault is quick to point out that patient-generated data is important to healthcare providers, and will be a part of the overall electronic health record. 

"What's fun now is watching the natural evolution of the market," he says. "There's a tremendous opportunity for innovation," particularly in combining patient-generated data with medical grade platforms that can filter and verify that data.

The value of medical grade data isn't lost on the healthcare market. At the mHealth Summit this past December, Qualcomm Life announced a huge partnership with Walgreens (which will be in prominent display at the Qualcomm booth at HIMSS15) that focuses on capturing reliable data from mHealth devices and platforms. More recently, the company forged a partnership with New York-based AMC Health, which will integrate 2net with its CareConsole care coordination platform.

Officials point out that AMC Health's platform is especially helpful in crafting home-based chronic care management programs, and that those programs have reduced hospital readmissions by some 20 percent. It's important, then, that providers have access to accurate data from home-based monitors to deal with such conditions as heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, asthma and COPD.

“The home is becoming the fastest growing health care setting in the United States and the combined capabilities of AMC Health and Qualcomm Life are powerful in managing patients with complex care needs beyond the walls of the hospital and into the home,” said Rick Valencia, Qualcomm Life's senior vice president and general manager, in the release.

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