What are the Medical wearables?

Wearable technology medical applications is one of the most interesting emerging trends in global Healthcare. We’ll talk about them now and you are always welcome to leave your feedback or share innovative ideas!

Patient generated data is being directly synced to electronic health records, therefore doctors monitor patient activity such as step counts or heart rates without actually seeing the patients and they can spot trends in their patient populations. So medical wearables give huge help in reducing healthcare costs and have really revolutionized how preventive medicine is carried out at the moment and further on. 

In 2022, digital health puts even more emphasis on remote care, at-home tests, AI solutions as the point of care keeps shifting to wherewher the patient is.

Where The Industry Flows  

So What Are They? Let us dive more specifically into wearable medical device trends! 

• Vocal biomarkers on your smartphone. Having a conversation with an AI that in return can tell a lot about the state of your health, and whether or not you have covid, for example. Voice tech startups are blooming, and here you can read more about the essence of it and the way the tech is changing our vision of healthcare. By the characteristics of your voice these algorithms can be accurate, fast and cost effective solutions compared to an average check up process which would essentially be a difference between life and death. For example, a voice base screening app can recognize covid through the person’s vocal features. 

As the investment money starts to pour into the field of voice tech, accurate diagnosis for some conditions can be as easy as a patient speaking into his/her smartphone. 

• AI in diagnostics. Let’s have a look at one example here – skin cancer. Its early detection and treatment are invaluable since almost all cases can be cured, only if found and treated early. It is usually at the end of our list when it comes to regular checkups. With an app you only have to take a photo of your skin and the tech will do the rest! AI is as good or even superior to human experts when it comes to skin issues. 
• Chatbots in traditional healthcare. Recently, smart algorithm-powered text- or voice-based interfaces have multiplied. They turned out to be perfect assistants to ease the burden of medical professionals. Better organization, medicine intake management, doctors visit appointments, emergencies, etc. In future, these chatbots are going to become the first contact point for primary care. 
• The Pandemic ushered us to At-home Lab Tests. Pregnancy test, fingerprint test for diabetes were revolutionary. They are easy to use and about 100% accurate. Now a handful of other tests are coming to our home. Microbiome, DNA Test, and many more. In a few years it will be a standard to access them easily at home. 
• Digital Health Insurance. There is no doubt that all this digital tech and a massive amount of health data will surely change health insurance. Investing blindly in people, knowing very little about their life and lifestyle is not ideal for insurance companies. In this new age of medical help, for better or worth, they are about to be more informed. Access to personal health metrics – heart rate, blood pressure, temperature – the better the insurance company knows about you, the better care they are able to provide. For example, if someone with a genome test has a higher risk for diabetes, the insurance company can provide more regular medical check ups. On the other hand, this approach can lead to the breach of your privacy. You can modify your access and shared data, of course. Anyways, they do not pay much for those who do not take proper care of their health. Smokers, for example, will hardly get more coverage on their treatment, as a rule. That is why insurance companies may demand all the information from all types of wearable medical devices like fitness trackers, sleep monitors, smart watches, etc. Only then will they decide whether to provide insurance or not. This is the case where doctors’ “big brother” is truly horrifying. Joking. 

The impressive variety of modern devices is demonstrated here:

The Benefits

Wearable medical tech devices give the necessary information to make the treatment more effective. They make it easier to see every aspect of a patient’s current health condition. 

• Real-time health monitoring. Spotting the issue in time leaves more chances for curing. The new cool wearable medical alert devices open up the door for real-time supervising powers. It may be crucial for patients with heart issues living in rural distant areas.  The system collects all the needed parameters, then they are shared seamlessly to the Web app for processing. An alarming function sends messages to the doctor in case of an emergency like fever, hypotension, etc.
• Alerts and alarms are better to make a separate benefit as it is so important when it comes to timely medical help. Especially when we deal with the most vulnerable health conditions. Medical wearable solutions tend to work well even offline or when the connection is not good and most data collecting processes require low power mode.
• Patient-physician information sharing is being done from the comfort of their homes or work offices, avoiding unnecessary efforts to make a visit in person, saving time, energy and money.
• Social media sharing helps to keep motivated and gives a powerful feeling of a supportive community. Wearable medical devices enable users to live and demonstrate their healthy lifestyles and find “soulmates” worldwide. It is a great positive habit that leads to the most rewarding results.