Wearable Revolution

Increased adoption, new technologies and deeper integration.

Improved battery life and increased connectivity are changing the landscape. Patient monitoring is increasingly being facilitated by devices connected to the cloud. Electronic health records, telehealth, remote patient monitoring and machine learning are converging. One of the new applications born out of this convergence are "hearables", technologies that combine continous audio monitoring, cloud connecitivity and machine learning to diagnose and monitor patients. There are specific devices such as Accupebble which are built specifically for audio monitoring. We're also seeing smartphones increasingly entering this space. Resmonics.ai's cough monitoring system uses the patients own smartphone to monitor the sound of their coughing. Other companies have technologies that use webcams in smartphones and in users laptops for monitoring and diagnosis. The boundary between wearables and consumer electronics has always been fuzzy and it's getting fuzzier, perhaps disappearing entirely in the future. Another interesting trend are wearable devices targeting brain activity directly. In Ear EEGs, devices that fit snuggly into the ear like Air Pods but which are capable of monitoring brain activity. Transcranial direct current stimulation, to simulate the brain for non invasive treatment. Less dramatic is deeper integration, it's becoming increasingly common for wearables to integrate across technological silos. Download the latest fitness app and you'll see integrations with several kinds of wearables. We're also seeing the rise of adhesive or patch wearables, devices to adhere to the skin. What can we expect from these technologies in the near future? What surprises lie in store for us?