Background: Smart rings enable continuous physiological monitoring through finger-worn sensors. Despite growing consumer adoption, their clinical utility beyond sleep tracking remains unclear. Objectives: To systematically review evidence for smart ring applications in clinical medicine, assess measurement accuracy, and evaluate clinical outcomes. Methods: We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science through 31 July 2025. Two reviewers independently screened studies and extracted data. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-I and RoB 2.0. Results: From 862 citations, 107 studies met inclusion criteria including approximately 100,000 participants. Studies were equally distributed between sleep (47.7%) and non-sleep applications (52.3%). Smart rings demonstrated high accuracy: heart rate r2 = 0.996, heart rate variability r2 = 0.980, and sleep detection 93–96% sensitivity. Predictive capabilities included COVID-19 detection 2.75 days pre-symptom (82% sensitivity), inflammatory bowel disease flare prediction 7 weeks early (72% accuracy), and bipolar episode detection 3–7 days early (79% sensitivity). However, 65% of studies had moderate-to-high bias risk. Limitations included small samples, proprietary algorithms (89%), poor diversity reporting (35%), and declining adherence (80% at 3 months to 43% at 12 months). Conclusion: Smart rings have evolved into clinical tools capable of early disease detection. However, algorithmic opacity, population homogeneity, and adherence challenges require attention before widespread implementation.
Gong et al. (2025) studied this question.