Real-time Data Drives the Future of Wearables in Healthcare

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The proliferation of wearables for health and wellness, and the need for more data about the current and future condition of individuals and patients, are key factors propelling market growth. Future growth opportunities focus on the commercialization and embedding of wearables in skin patches, clothing, and electronic skins.

Frost & Sullivan’s research, “Future Wearables in Healthcare—R&D Portfolio Areas and Technology Roadmapping,” assesses market dynamics, research and development (R&D) opportunities, adoption drivers, technology trends, and challenges for healthcare wearable devices. It identifies developers in diverse areas such as electronic skin, smart gloves, glucose sweat sensors, wearable stethoscopes, asthma monitoring patches, smart bandages, smart clothing, and electrocardiogram monitoring.

“To optimize opportunities in wearables for healthcare, technology developers or providers should focus on designing wearable products that are comfortable and convenient,” said Frost & Sullivan TechVision Principal Analyst Peter Adrian. “The device should provide accurate, reliable, real-time data, and data transmission capabilities without requiring the user to have expertise in wearable sensing or communications technology. Soft, flexible, stretchable sensing materials will be comfortable for the user."

To succeed in the healthcare wearables ecosystem, players need to:

• Provide data that is tightly integrated with the data management system used by healthcare professionals to give more information on the real-time condition of patients, which can be integrated into existing data to drive personalized healthcare and furnish a complete picture of the patient’s current and future medical conditions;
• Ensure that medical-grade wearables can provide sufficient accuracy, sensitivity, and selectivity when monitoring key parameters; Use wearables to provide data-as-a-service;
• Focus on key applications such as the management and monitoring of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s, asthma, and mental health; and
• Look toward high-growth markets such as the elderly.

“Wearables can provide healthcare professionals with insights into a patient’s health. However, systems need to be developed that support the integration, adoption, privacy and security of data from wearables,” noted Adrian. “It can take a significant effort for healthcare organizations to incorporate actionable data from wearables into the organization’s data collection and storage systems.”

Future Wearables in Healthcare—R&D Portfolio Areas and Technology Roadmapping is part of Frost & Sullivan’s TechVision Growth Partnership Service program. Other studies recently released include Technology Innovations for Patient Engagement and Innovations in Smart Sensors.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community.