“Published in the Sports Health journal, the study was conducted in collaboration with the Head Team Physician of the Cleveland Browns football team.”

Biometric wearables could have a major impact in the world of sports and professional athletics, according to a new study from University Hospitals Sports Medicine researchers.

Published in the Sports Health journal, the study was conducted in collaboration with the Head Team Physician of the Cleveland Browns football team. It used a coin-sized sensor, which athletes wore during training; the sensor monitored biometric signals allowing the researchers to track “real-time physiologic and movement parameters during training and competitive sports,” said lead researcher Dr. James Voos in a statement announcing the paper. “These parameters can be used to detect position-specific patterns in movement, design more efficient sports-specific training programs for performance optimization, and screen for potential causes of injury,” he added.

The study joins a growing body of research that has begun to illuminate the potential benefits of biometric sensors in the world of athletics and in monitoring physical health more generally. Indeed, the academic world sometimes appears to be lagging behind the private market in this area, given the wide and growing range of commercial fitness tracking devices available; but researchers are evidently coming around to biometric wearables as an important means of physiological research.