Smart ring health tracking to guide weight-loss care in adults with obesity
Tests whether a smart ring helps care teams guide weight loss in adults with obesity.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Jeff Reeves
- Where
- San Diego, United StatesSee the site
- Trial code
- Registry title
- Continuous Wearable Biometric Monitoring in Adults Undergoing Obesity Treatment (SMART-BMI)
- Status
- Not yet recruiting
- People taking part
- 260 people, planned
- Started
- 17 Aug 2026
- Expected to end
- 28 Feb 2031
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groupsOne group gets an existing treatment, for comparison.
- Treatments tested
- Biometric-informed care
- Control Arm: Standard Care
- Record updated
- 30 July 2026
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for adults in obesity treatment who are having weight-loss surgery or starting a GLP-1 type medicine. Everyone wears a smart ring (Oura Ring) that tracks health signals.
- Age
- 18 years or older and under 65 years (up to 64 years).
- Sex
- All sexes can join.
- Disease stage
- Obesity (BMI 27 kg/m² or greater), or meeting the clinic's criteria for weight-loss surgery. Either scheduled for sleeve gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass at least 30 days after consent, or planning to start a GLP-1 or GLP-1/GIP medicine as part of routine care.
- Earlier treatment
- No earlier weight-loss surgery (surgery group only). No GLP-1 type medicine in the past 6 months (medicine group only). No active gastric band adjustments within 1 year of the study start or end.
Main reasons for not taking part
- Pacemaker, implanted defibrillator or neurostimulator, or a known heart rhythm problem
- Chronic kidney disease stage IV or greater, dialysis, or a past solid organ transplant
- Pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning pregnancy in the next 24 months
- Active cancer treatment in the past 12 months, or active alcohol or substance use disorder
- Cirrhosis, chronic pancreatitis, severe gastroparesis, or severe heart or lung disease
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 37 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Age 18 years or older and under 65 years
- Diagnosis of obesity (BMI 27 kg/m² or greater), or meeting clinical criteria for bariatric surgery per standard of care at UCSD Health
- Actively receiving or planning to receive care through UCSD Health Bariatric and Metabolic Institute or Obesity Medicine clinics
- Able to provide written informed consent
- Owns or has access to a smartphone compatible with the Oura application (iOS 15 or higher, or Android 9 or higher)
- Agrees to follow the study's lifestyle considerations throughout the study
- Willing to wear the Oura Ring per manufacturer-recommended wear guidelines for the study duration (Phase 1: all participants; Phase 2: intervention arm only)
- For Phase 2: willing to be randomly assigned to either the wearable monitoring plus coaching arm or the coaching-only arm
- Bariatric Surgery Cohort: scheduled for bariatric surgery (sleeve gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass) at UCSD Health within the enrollment window, with surgery planned at least 30 days after consent to allow a baseline monitoring period
- GLP-1 Initiation Cohort: planned start of incretin-based medication (GLP-1 receptor agonist or dual GLP-1/GIP agonist) as part of routine clinical care
- Ability to speak English or Spanish
Who cannot take part
- Previous bariatric procedure at any time (bariatric surgery cohort only)
- History of solid organ transplant, or currently receiving dialysis
- Inability to tolerate general anesthesia (bariatric surgery cohort only)
- Prior use of incretin-based therapy within the past 6 months (GLP-1 initiation cohort only)
- Implanted cardiac device, pacemaker, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or neurostimulator
- Severe heart disease (such as severe heart failure or unstable coronary artery disease) or end-stage lung disease, as determined by the site PI
- Known cardiac arrhythmia, or use of any cardiac medication (such as a beta-blocker) that in the PI's opinion would interfere with the quality of Oura-derived heart rate or heart rate variability data
- Endocrine or metabolic condition that would make weight loss clinically complicated or difficult to achieve, at the discretion of the study team (such as uncontrolled hypothyroidism, chronic glucocorticoid use, or a genetic condition unresponsive to standard treatment)
- Portal hypertension or cirrhosis
- Chronic kidney disease Stage IV or greater, or on dialysis
- Significant and uncontrolled inflammatory bowel disease
- Diagnosed sleep disorder that would substantially impair the validity of wearable-derived sleep measurements (such as severe untreated obstructive sleep apnea or severe insomnia)
- Active cancer treatment within the past 12 months
- History of laparoscopic gastric band with active band titration (any adjustments occurring or planned within 1 year of the start or end of the study period)
- Severe or uncontrolled psychiatric disorder (including active psychosis or bipolar disorder with an active manic episode), as determined during standard pre-surgery psychiatric screening or clinical assessment
- Suicidal ideation, or unstable or untreated major depressive disorder within the past 12 months
- Active alcohol or substance use disorder within the past 12 months
- Active diagnosed eating disorder (not in remission for more than 1 year)
- Any history or current health condition that, in the PI's opinion, would make the participant ineligible or would substantially compromise the quality or interpretability of wearable-derived data
- Any contraindication to wearing the Oura Ring per current manufacturer labeling and safety guidelines
- Severe gastroparesis
- Chronic pancreatitis
- Uncontrollable coagulopathy
- Pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning pregnancy within the study follow-up period (24 months from enrollment)
- Diminished capacity to provide informed consent or to follow pre- and post-treatment instructions, as determined by the clinical team
- Current use of another wearable health monitoring device (such as Apple Watch, Fitbit, or Garmin) that the participant is unwilling to stop using for the study duration
Check if you might fit
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 18 and 64 years old?
Where in United States
- UTC Digestive Diseases, University of California, San Diego HealthSan Diego, United StatesContact: Clinic Manager, MSN, RNNo longer taking part
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a smart ring that tracks health signals can help adults lose weight and improve their health during obesity treatment. The study includes adults who are having weight-loss surgery or starting weight-loss medication.
Read full original descriptionShow less
The Oura Ring tracks signals like sleep, heart rate, and activity. In this study, the care team can see this information and use it to guide each person's care.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
Do people lose more weight when their care team uses the ring's information? Does using the ring's information improve health measures like blood sugar and blood pressure?
The study has two parts. In the first part, everyone wears the ring while the study team makes sure the ring's information can be collected and used. In the second part, the study places participants into one of two groups by chance, like flipping a coin. One group's care team uses the ring's information. The other group's care team does not. Researchers will compare the two groups to see if the ring's information helps.
Participants will:
Wear the Oura Ring during the study Go to their regular clinic visits Answer survey questions about their health and quality of life
The 2 groups in the trial
- Intervention Arm: Biometric-Informed CareTreatment being tested
Participants wear the Oura Ring (Generation 4) continuously while receiving standard of care medical and/or surgical treatment for obesity and receive standardized health coaching from a study-funded coach. The care team and health coach can view the participant's biometric data (including sleep, heart rate, and activity) through a dashboard and incorporates this information into coaching and care decisions. Participants are followed for 52 weeks.
Treatment: Biometric-informed care
- Control Arm: Standard CareExisting treatment, for comparison
Participants receive standardized care for the treatment of obesity including surgical or medical obesity management and health coaching from a study-funded coach who delivers a behavioral curriculum without access to any wearable biometric data. Care team contact frequency matches the intervention arm so that the two arms differ only in the patient and care team's access to biometric data. Participants are followed for 52 weeks.
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- Effect of Continuous Wearable Biometric Monitoring on Weight Loss and Metabolic Outcomes in Adults Undergoing Obesity Treatment: A Sensor-Mediated Adaptive Randomized Controlled Trial in Bariatric and Metabolic Intervention (SMART-BMI)
- Plain-language title
- Smart ring health tracking to guide weight-loss care in adults with obesityGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 13 November 2026.
- Fit questions
- Built from NCT07736729, who can take part
- Record updated
- 30 July 2026