Calibrating flare alerts to reduce alarm fatigue

An alert that fires too often stops being heard. This work examines how flare notifications can be calibrated so they inform rather than alarm.

Introduction

Continuous monitoring makes early warnings possible, but every false alert carries a cost in anxiety and trust. For people already living with an unpredictable condition, that cost is significant.

Methodology

We compared alerting strategies against retrospective symptom logs, weighing how early each strategy flagged a flare against how often it flagged one that never came.

Data collected:

• Continuous biosignal streams and derived risk scores
• Patient-reported flare onset and severity
• Alert timing relative to reported symptoms
• Self-reported response to notifications

Results

Thresholds set relative to each person’s own baseline, combined with a short confirmation window, reduced spurious alerts while preserving most of the early-warning lead time.

Safety Implications

Alert design is a safety question, not only a usability one. Fewer, better-timed notifications support self-management without adding to the burden of the condition.

Conclusion

Calibrated, personalized alerting offers a better balance between sensitivity and wellbeing. Further evaluation with patient input on alert preferences is ongoing.