Transforming wearable data into personal health insights using large language model agents

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Authors: Mike A. Merrill, Akshay Paruchuri, Naghmeh Rezaei, Geza Kovacs, Javier Perez, Yun Liu, Erik Schenck, Nova Hammerquist, Jake Sunshine, Shyam Tailor, Kumar Ayush, Hao-Wei Su
+8 more Qian He, Cory Y. McLean, Mark Malhotra, Shwetak Patel, Jiening Zhan, Tim Althoff, Daniel McDuff, Yi Liu
Cited by: 14
References: 38

Abstract

Deriving personalized insights from popular wearable trackers requires complex numerical reasoning that challenges standard LLMs, necessitating tool-based approaches like code generation. Large language model (LLM) agents present a promising yet largely untapped solution for this analysis at scale. We introduce the Personal Health Insights Agent (PHIA), a system leveraging multistep reasoning with code generation and information retrieval to analyze and interpret behavioral health data. To test its capabilities, we create and share two benchmark datasets with over 4000 health insights questions. A 650-hour human expert evaluation shows that PHIA significantly outperforms a strong code generation baseline, achieving 84% accuracy on objective, numerical questions and, for open-ended ones, earning 83% favorable ratings while being twice as likely to achieve the highest quality rating. This work can advance behavioral health by empowering individuals to understand their data, enabling a new era of accessible, personalized, and data-driven wellness for the wider population. Wearable devices generate vast streams of health data, but making sense of these measurements requires complex numerical reasoning beyond the reach of conventional language models. This study introduces a large language model agent that interprets wearable data to deliver accurate, personalized health insights.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Digital Mental Health Interventions Mental Health via Writing Machine Learning in Healthcare

Publication details

Journal / source
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
17
Issue
1
Pages
1143–1143
Publication date
12 January 2026
Language
EN