Why Documenting Heat Exposure Matters: Insights from JAMA

JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) is one of the most widely circulated and respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world. It publishes cutting-edge research and commentary on emerging issues in medicine, public health, and clinical policy.

A recent JAMA paper emphasizes how inadequate clinical documentation of heat-related illnesses—particularly using standardized coding systems—undermines broader understanding of heat exposure and its real-world impacts. The study spotlights the X30 code ("exposure to excessive natural heat") and its variants as an important but consistently underused tool in clinical settings.

By highlighting the gap between heat exposure incidents and formal medical recognition, the paper underscores a bigger systemic issue: heat stress remains undercounted, invisible in health records, and underfunded in preventive strategy.

Clinicians often record heat-related symptoms without assigning an X30 or related code, leading to challenges in understanding true prevalence and risk patterns. This routine underdiagnosis weakens public health surveillance and hinders efforts to support at-risk populations before severe outcomes arise.

When heat exposure isn’t clearly captured in patient records, policymakers and healthcare systems lack the granular data needed to justify resilience investments—like cooling infrastructure or community outreach. Without visibility, heat stress becomes treated as an afterthought rather than a preventable, quantifiable condition.

The study’s emphasis on underreported heat exposure aligns precisely with HeatSense’s core purpose. HeatSense captures real-time biometric data—such as core body temperature, skin temperature, and heart rate—and converts it into actionable insights. Rather than relying solely on self-reported symptoms or clinical coding, HeatSense provides objective, continuous visibility into physiological heat load, long before heat illness is even being diagnosed.

By embedding the physiological signal of heat load into its platform, HeatSense fills the gap where clinical records fall short. Coaches and guardians receive moment-to-moment alerts if an athlete’s heat response accelerates beyond expected thresholds. Recovery metrics post-session help prevent cumulative heat impact. This kind of data not only empowers on-site decisions but can also support aggregated insights for broader heat exposure reporting.

Subtle or early-stage heat stress aggregated HeatSense data offers a rich supplemental layer of evidence. Patterns of heat load across teams or over time can be anonymized and shared to demonstrate trends across settings—whether in youth sports, college athletics, or community leagues.

Heat-related risks are escalating across demographics. Nationwide mortality from heat has more than doubled over the past two decades, and older adults, low-income individuals, and outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable. Vulnerable groups such as people experiencing homelessness face acute risks, visiting ERs at rates far above the general population during extreme heat episodes. Accurate data collection is essential to address these disparities.

The JAMA study does more than analyze medical coding—it reveals a critical blind spot in how heat exposure is acknowledged and tracked in healthcare systems. That invisibility impairs policy, preparedness, and early risk detection.

HeatSense answers that call by making heat visible, measurable, and actionable. Its biometric tracking translates the physiological effects of heat—before they culminate in diagnosable illness—supporting smarter decisions, personalized care, and clearer reporting. In a warming world, being able to document and respond to heat exposure is essential. HeatSense delivers that capability, bridging the gap between lived heat stress and formal medical recognition.