Over the past decade, remote care has become an intrinsic part of healthcare operations worldwide, with telehealth, in particular, rising rapidly as a critical care tool for patients and providers alike. This rise of telehealth does not exist in isolation but goes hand in hand with the growth of the wearable medical devices market, which is gaining significant momentum in recent years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the telehealth trend tremendously, allowing wearable medical technology to transcend its initial purpose as a simple tracking tool for fitness and become an essential cog in the healthcare ecosystem. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Rock Health and Stanford Medicine, among 8,000 adults in the U.S. nearly 43% claimed to own a wearable device, indicating a rise from the 33% recorded the previous year.
Modern medical wearables are enabling patients to keep track of myriad health parameters, from sleep to cardiac health to fitness levels and more, giving physicians the ability to seamlessly manage their patients’ progress, even remotely.
This burgeoning popularity of wearable technology has caused several organisations, from the government as well as private sectors, to invest heavily in initiatives and projects aimed at building on and improving the use of such devices in healthcare applications.
Enlisted below are three such initiatives triggering breakthroughs in the wearable medical devices industry:
National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Programme
The All of Us research program, led by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) is one of the most prominent examples of targeted initiatives driving wearable medical devices industry growth. This program is bolstered by various efforts, such as a new study announced by Scripps Research in February 2021, designed to leverage the power of wearable medical technology to revolutionise medical research, and engage over one million people across the U.S. to construct one of the most wide-ranging health databases in history.
As part of this program, Scripps Research distributed over 10,000 Fitbit devices, free of cost, to select participants engaged in other research operations, such as online surveys, with an agreement to share EHRs (electronic health records) with the All of Us initiative. The objective behind this one-year study was to examine the engagement of participants with their wearable health monitoring devices, to facilitate further research. In addition to this, the digital clinical study was also aimed at generating data sets allowing the research community to study the link between health metrics like sleep, heart rate, and physical activity and health outcomes, as part of the broader agenda of the All of Us programme.
Qualcomm’s Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Programme
In July 2021, Qualcomm Technologies also announced its new Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Programme, as part of its broadening platform investment strategy. Designed to facilitate collaboration among participating firms and develop solutions to commonly faced challenges in the wearable medical devices business landscape, the accelerator programme comprises various devices manufacturers, independent hardware & software vendors, service providers, etc. As part of the programme, these participants were to work collaboratively with OEMs to ensure more streamlined development and commercialisation of wearable technology in healthcare and other applications.
Bringing together various industry leaders like Verizon, Arm, and Vodafone, the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Programme was designed to help members work towards their collective goal to accelerate growth in wearable technology, by delivering novel experiences with faster production times at reduced development costs.
University Health Network’s FIBRE initiative
Similar efforts are being undertaken in Canada, where major entities like Sona Group and Vee Technologies inked a collaboration with the University Health Network in Toronto in March 2021. As part of the multi-institution research and development FIBRE initiative for the development of smart fabric-based wearable devices, the objective behind the collaboration was to enhance the lives of people experiencing health-related challenges.
FIBRE, led by the UHN hospital network comprising of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and The Michener Institute of Education, among other medical and educational institutions, is an initiative created with an objective to construct a fully interconnected medical science ecosystem, with the help of wearable health monitoring devices that will help clinicians to remotely monitor patient health and provide universal and timely access to the best quality care.