Health technology devices showcased at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas are drawing attention for their ambitious promises, but experts are warning users to be cautious about their accuracy, reliability and data privacy.
Among the eye-catching products were a smart scale that scans users’ feet to monitor heart health and an egg-shaped hormone tracker that uses artificial intelligence to help women determine the best time to conceive. While manufacturers say such devices can transform personal health care, medical and technology specialists say many of the claims need closer scrutiny.
Concerns have also grown as the US government moves to ease regulations on consumer health technology. During the show, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would relax oversight of so-called “low-risk” wellness products, including heart monitors and wheelchairs. The move follows a broader push by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce barriers to AI innovation.
The White House has already repealed a previous executive order that set guardrails for AI use, and the Department of Health and Human Services recently outlined a strategy to expand AI across the health sector.
At CES, companies promoted technology aimed at helping people in rural areas with limited access to doctors, boosting research into women’s health and improving daily life for people with disabilities.
According to Marschall Runge, a professor of medical science at the University of Michigan, AI tools can be useful in analysing medical images and easing doctors’ workloads. However, he warned that the technology can also reinforce bias and sometimes generate false information presented as fact.
“I would urge people not to think that the technology is the same as a well-resourced, thoughtful, research-driven medical professional,” said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.
She also cautioned that privacy protections such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act do not apply to data collected by consumer devices. Companies may use that data to train AI systems or sell it to third parties, she said.
“With a lot of the gadgets at CES, it’s difficult to find out where your information is going,” Cohn added. “You have to dig through the fine print, and that’s not fair for people who may rely on these tools.”
Product developers, however, say their devices are filling gaps in health care and insist they take privacy seriously.
Sylvia Kang, founder and CEO of Mira, said she developed the company’s egg-shaped hormone tracker after seeing friends struggle to understand their hormonal health while trying to conceive. The $250 device analyses hormone levels using a urine test and displays results on a mobile app.
Kang said her company uses AI to analyse female hormone data and operates one of the world’s largest hormone health databases. She added that customer data is stored securely on the cloud and is not shared.
Many products at CES focused on women’s health, an area long under-researched and underfunded. Women were excluded from clinical trials before 1993, and research into menopause and related conditions remains limited.
One wearable device called Peri is designed to monitor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats during perimenopause, the transitional stage before menopause, and share the data through an app.
Other companies promoted AI tools as a way to improve access to health information. A free medicine-focused chatbot called 0xmd allows users to ask medical questions, upload photos of skin conditions and translate doctors’ notes into simpler language.
Its founder, Allen Au, said the tool is meant to offer a second opinion, not replace doctors. OpenAI also announced the launch of a similar platform, ChatGPT Health.
Still, experts remain cautious.
“These are just tools,” Cohn said. “They’re not oracles delivering the truth. They can help people ask better questions, but they are no substitute for a medical professional.”