What is the Future of Wearable Technology in Healthcare?
Wearable technology is continuing to rise in popularity among consumers and the healthcare industry is reaping the benefits.
Wearable fitness devices improve patient literacy, making the jobs of healthcare providers easier and insurance less expensive. Real-time remote patient data also enables practitioners to effectively treat patients who might be dishonest about their lifestyle habits, removing the necessity of a retroactive approach to care.
In various ways, data from wearable devices enables healthcare companies to make decisions that lead to better patient outcomes. While it’s clear that wearable technology has benefits in the here and now, what can we expect in the future as technology and markets evolve?
Wearable Healthcare Technology Will Become Ubiquitous
Recent reports suggest that 80% of consumers are willing to wear fitness devices to track and monitor their own health. This bodes well for healthcare technology that looks and functions in a similar way.
Fitness trackers, like smartwatches, are just one type of wearable technology–one that can already track physical activity, heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation level. Newer, more specialized technology is being developed to achieve even more. For example, there are devices on the market that can take and send ECG measurements, monitor blood pressure, and track respiratory rates, sleep patterns, and fertility. As medical device technology evolves, the transition from wearables to more integrated sensors and ultimately implants becomes more likely.
Health and fitness app users are thus at the vanguard of making wearable technology mainstream, which industry experts agree is likely to foster the creation of new markets for more specialized devices that can perform more complex and diverse tasks.
Wearable Technology Will Influence Insurers
Wearable healthcare devices tend to incentivize fitness-related behaviors in patients. The result is that healthcare costs associated with hospital stays and increased medications due to poorly managed personal health are likely to decrease for users of this technology. That, in turn, means that insurers will be looking to wearable technology as a potential mechanism to control cost increases in insurance.
In short, patients who are willing to use wearable technology may see lower insurance premiums in the near future.
Companies Will Begin to Provide Wearable Healthcare Technology to Employees
As people are becoming more willing to track their own health, more companies are expected to support them by offering the technology to do so. In fact, research shows that employees that feel their employers support and invest in healthy lifestyles are more productive and less likely to leave their jobs.
An incentive structure is thus already in place to support the potential widespread corporate adoption of wearable healthcare technologies.
Efficacy in Healthcare Will Improve
One challenge that is associated with wearable technologies concerns the proliferation of data. Wearable medical devices are capable of generating (and potentially transmitting) extremely large amounts of patient-specific data. That data must be stored, cleaned, collated, and interpreted before it is usable.
The medical industry, of course, is no stranger to dealing with large amounts of data. Indeed, the indispensable role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the healthcare field is now almost universally acknowledged.
The future of wearables will undoubtedly be intimately connected with AI. Wearable medical devices produce enormous data sets, giving healthcare companies grist for the mill of machine learning algorithms that can be designed to shed light on any number of patterns within the data.
- Patient data could be used to predict the upcoming need for specific, expensive, or hard-to-find medical equipment.
- Data from devices could be used to prescreen patients before they come into the office, enabling providers to go over all the information provided in real-time from their device.
- Data from wearable devices enables decentralized clinical trials, reducing the need for physical contact between patients and medical professionals.
- Medical device data could be transmitted directly to and integrated with patient electronic health records, reducing clerical staff needs and ensuring that records stay up to date.
And these use cases really are the tip of the iceberg.
Deployment of Wearable Technology in Healthcare
There is no doubt that the future of healthcare will be influenced by wearable technologies. Wearable medical devices will have an impact on everything from market pressures and business strategies to patient experiences and outcomes.
Shifting your organization now, while the adoption of wearable medical device technology is still ramping up, will not only help your patients and providers but also serve as a way to differentiate your company from other healthcare organizations. Don’t be caught flat-footed and unable to adapt as new technologies enter the industry and force businesses to change their thinking.
There’s one sure way to be prepared for what’s coming, and that is to partner with experts who understand what the future holds and are willing to be an extension of your team. illumisoft has the expertise you’re looking for.
illumisoft has experience not only in the creation of remote patient monitoring solutions but also mobile health apps and medical device software that seamlessly integrates with those solutions. Moreover, illumisoft is experienced in integrating patient data with secure and effective records management systems. We’ve also developed machine learning tools that can help you modernize your business and improve efficiencies across your organization.
If you’re looking for patient-centric ways of integrating wearable healthcare technologies into your business, let’s talk.