The market of wearables is a thriving one. Global wearable unit shipments this year have already touched the mark of 560 million so far. Revenue earned from the sale of these devices is about to reach US$75 billion. The average revenue earned per user (ARPU) of well-being devices is already more than US$82.5. The fact that the wearable ARPU is already higher than the ARPU of milk, which will become US$61 in 2029, gives an idea of how prevalent wearables have become in our present-day world!
One reason wearables have become so popular is their utility in healthcare. They cater to the space and scope created by the growing awareness about lifestyle management and home-based healthcare.
It serves the needs that have evolved around us with growing awareness of the benefits of preventive healthcare.
Companies worldwide are investing in R&D to manufacture novel solutions that can cater to the needs of a large segment of people in developed countries and emerging markets. In the segment below, we discuss one such solution that holds great potential in the development of soft, lightweight, wearable motion sensors for healthcare purposes.
Developing a Gel Electret that Can Stably Retain a Large Electrostatic Charge
A team of researchers from NIMS, Hokkaido University, and Meiji Pharmaceutical University has come up with a gel electret that can stably retain a large electrostatic charge. The team combined this gel with highly flexible electrodes thereafter.
The result was a sensor that could perceive low-frequency vibrations—as generated by human motion—and convert them into output voltage signals.
Material-wise, the research team developed an alkyl–π gel by adding a trace amount of a low-molecular-weight gelator to an alkyl–π liquid. The addition helped obtain a gel whose elastic storage modulus was 40 million times larger than that of its liquid counterpart. Moreover, the gel-electret obtained by charging this gel achieved a 24% increase in charge retention compared to the base material, owing to its improved confinement of electrostatic charges.
Once the team created flexible electrodes with the gel-electret to create a vibration sensor, the resulting sensor could perceive vibrations with frequencies as low as 17 Hz and convert them into an output voltage of 600 mV—83% higher than the voltage generated by an alkyl–π liquid electret-based sensor.
Researchers believe that the solution they obtained by the end of the research may help develop wearable sensors capable of responding to subtle vibrations and various strain deformations. However, it might require some improvement in the charging electret characteristics of the gel, including its charge capacity and charge life and the strength of the alkyl–π gel. Since the gel is recyclable, it may also be reused as a vibration sensor material in a bid to improve the cost efficiency of the process.
Like this invention that would help advance the development of healthcare wearables, several wearables have already been facilitating our everyday household preventive healthcare initiatives. In the segments to come, we will look into some such examples.
How Wearable Health Technology Empower Individuals to Take Greater Responsibility for Their Health and Care
Research that looked into 1585 unique records to understand the impact of wearables on advancing healthcare found that wearables could empower individuals by assisting with diagnosis, behavior change, and self-monitoring.
It specifically took note of consumer products that were famous as wellness gadgets, such as smartwatches by Apple, activity trackers by Fitbit, and specialized medical devices that could detect electrolyte levels and screen blood for cancer cells. In the segments below, we will look into some of these devices.
Apple Smartwatches
Apple Smartwatches deal with the aspects of fitness and health in the most engaging and intuitive ways possible. In fitness, it accurately tracks all the metrics one wants to see, including heart rate zones, the targeting of specific time goals with a pacer, and interval training parameters with custom workouts.
In terms of health, the watch can generate an ECG similar to a single-lead electrocardiogram. It alerts users about electrocardiograms and notifies them of high and low heart rates as well as irregular heart rhythms.
The watch also helps maintain a bedtime routine and track sleep, allowing owners to monitor the time spent in REM, core, and deep sleep stages. Additionally, these smartwatches offer valuable insights into one”s menstrual cycle and mental health.
Fitbit by Google
Fitbit is both into wearable devices and app-based health tracking services. Its physical wearables include smartwatches, trackers, and scales. Fitbit claims that its trackers have produced the most accurate heart rate yet. The Fitbit Aria Air is an easy-to-use smart scale that displays one’s weight and syncs it to the Fitbit app so that viewers can see their BMI and track trends over time.
Wearables Detecting Electrolyte Levels
The journal Nature published a comprehensive review of wearable sweat sensors that allow continuous, real-time, noninvasive detection of sweat analytes. These sensors provide insights into human physiology at the molecular level. The research review claims that these devices have garnered “significant attention for their promising applications in personalized health monitoring.”
Wearable sweat sensors that work the best include electrochemical sensors. They offer high performance at low cost, and their miniaturization features result in wide applicability. The compatibility of wearable electrochemical sweat sensors has advanced significantly in recent times due to the latest developments in soft multi-fluidics, multiplexed biosensing, energy harvesting devices, technology, and materials.
Wearable Devices That Capture and Remove Tumor Cells
Five years back, in 2019, reports came out about a new wearable device that could capture and remove tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream. The blood-filtering gadget could diagnose and perhaps treat metastatic cancer in humans.
When blood drawn from a vein was pumped through the device, it could capture tumor cells and pump the blood back into the body. Apart from serving as a cancer treatment that filters out tumor cells, the machine could also work as a diagnostic tool by estimating the number of circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream and helping to characterize the tumor from which they came.
Sunitha Nagrath, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan who co-authored the research, said about the wearable’s potential:
“There’s a long way to go, but eventually, it could be used in a setting where early-stage cancer patients who are undergoing surgery [to remove tumors] could wear this device and get as many tumor cells out of their blood as possible.”
While research around new solutions and technologies continued, many companies have emerged that are specifically focused on healthcare wearables.
#1. Stryker
Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies. Its tech-based medical solutions touch the lives of more than 150 million patients annually. Headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Stryker has been present in the med-tech space since 1941. Keeping pace with changing times, the company has invented many wearable healthcare and care management devices.
For instance, Stryker’s MotionSense® with OrthoLogIQ® is a wearable remote therapeutic monitoring device that helps guide and empower patients through their knee replacement recovery. The device sends patient recovery information directly to the surgeon and care team so that they can personalize a patient’s recovery by customizing physical therapy exercises. The metrics that the device captures include pain scores, range of motion, wound images, daily steps, etc.
In January 2022, Stryker announced a definitive agreement to acquire Vocera Communications. While acquiring Vocera, Kevin Lobo, the Chair and CEO of Stryker, had the following to say:
“Vocera will help Stryker significantly accelerate our digital aspirations to improve the lives of caregivers and patients.”
The acquisition of Vocera was indeed a crucial step in augmenting Stryker’s leadership in the wearable healthcare space. It was Vocera that introduced the new Minibadge, a wearable, voice-driven device that enabled mobile workers to communicate completely hands-free.
This small, lightweight device could integrate with multiple clinical and operational systems, expanding communication and collaboration solutions for frontline workers in healthcare and other mission-critical environments. For users, it came with additional flexibility by working in conjunction with Vocera smartphone apps, making it fast and easy for users to alternate between mobile devices to fit their communication needs at the moment.
According to its 2023 comprehensive report factsheet, Stryker registered US$20.5 billion in global sales and US$1.4 billion in R&D investments. The company has nearly 13,000 global patents to its credit and serves patients in nearly 75 countries.
#2. Medtronic
Another well-known med-tech company that has been consolidating its position in the wearable health-tech segment is Medtronic. One of the most popular solutions that Medtronic has in this space is the BioButton multi-parameter wearable, a medical-grade device designed for continuous vital sign monitoring of skin temperature, respiratory rate at rest, and heart rate at rest, along with a broad range of other biometrics.
The device reduces the need for manual vital sign collection and documentation time, offering clinically actionable notifications without inducing alarm fatigue in the user. It has improved patient satisfaction by minimizing nighttime spot checks that disturb patients and eliminating the need to disconnect from a bedside monitor for certain parameters.
Devices like BioButton have larger implications that go beyond meeting the needs of individual healthcare and add value to society. For instance, continuous remote patient monitoring – through wearables – on the medical-surgical floor can enable earlier intervention through earlier identification of adverse patient physiologic trends.
It leads to shorter hospital stays, fewer unplanned ICU admissions, a reduced need for activating rapid response teams, and a decrease in complication rates. From an even broader perspective, the use of such devices can reduce mortality.
Like Stryker, Medtronic also adopted inorganic growth strategies to match the needs of wearable-powered healthcare. In August 2022, the company entered into a strategic partnership with BioIntelliSense, a continuous health monitoring and clinical intelligence company, for the exclusive U.S. hospital and 30-day post-acute hospital-to-home distribution rights of BioButton.
Medtronic reported FY23 worldwide revenue of $31.227 billion, a decrease of 1.4% as reported and an increase of 2.1% on an organic basis.
The Future of Health-Oriented Wearables
The future of health-oriented wearables, as was evident from the surging market size numbers, looks great, to say the least. However, for the solutions to become more viable, it would require overcoming some more challenges.
For instance, its data has to be as accurate and reliable as scientifically possible since it deals with a subject as sensitive as human health and its cure.
Another concern relating to these devices is data security and privacy. These devices collect sensitive personal information and, therefore, must follow the most stringent security practices to ensure that the data does not end up in the wrong hands.
These devices are meant for continuous tracking, even when the patients are asleep. Long battery life is an ardent need for these devices. However, manufacturers are constantly working on improving battery technology.
For these devices to cross the digital barrier and become useful to every economic stratum of society, they have to become more affordable, especially in countries where institutional care, in terms of hospitals and surgical facilities, is hard to avail.
While these challenges remain, health-oriented wearables will become increasingly viable in the days to come, with their proactive health management benefits, early disease detection and prevention capabilities, improved chronic disease management features, and personalized healthcare and patient engagement facilities.
Click here for the list of top wearable health-tracking firms.