Advances in wearable health technology show few signs of slowing down, especially as many of these devices are now so commonplace they’ve become mainstream. With the increasing demand from consumers to monitor their own health and keep track of their own vital signs, use of this technology has tripled in the past four years.

This rising demand has created a booming market for wearable devices. Insurers, health providers, and other companies are increasingly seeing the benefits of providing such technology to their consumers.  

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Wearable devices like the Apple Watch and Fitbit are widely used, even by consumers who are not active in the health or fitness fields. These devices are designed to collect user’s personal activity data, and connectivity means this data is available for immediate analysis. As consumers become more and more interested in sharing this data with their doctors and insurers, the demand for wearable devices is projected to keep rising.  

There are many tending wearable devices that are not as well known as smartwatches or Fitbits, but which do offer a variety of useful innovative solutions that should interest many. This is especially true as research from Insider Intelligence suggests 80% of consumers are willing to wear fitness technology.

Let’s take a look at some particularly interesting companies and advancements in the wearable device industry.

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Ava

Ava is a nighttime wearable that helps women naturally track their cycle to understand more about their fertility, pregnancy, and overall health. In addition to tracking simple symptom, ovulation, and period data, this wearable also tracks and logs sleep, stress levels, breathing, and heart rate while you rest. The use of this device is very simple. You simply wear the sensor bracelet to bed, then in the morning sync it to the mobile app to view your results. Ava identifies an average of five fertile days per cycle with an 89% accuracy rate. 

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Motiv

While watches are common fitness and health wearables these days, Motiv does things a little differently. The Motiv Ring slips onto a user’s finger to monitor sleep activity and heart rate. The ring lets users track and adjust their goals through the Motiv app. The Motiv Ring is a good alternative for users who are put off by watches or other, larger wearables. 

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Owlet

Your child’s health and safety are obviously very important, and there are various wearables to help ensure their well-being. 

Owlet creates wearable devices and cameras for babies and infants. The Smart Sock is the first baby monitor to track your baby’s oxygen and heart rate. The Owlet Cam streams HD video with night vision and two-way audio to your smartphone so you can see and hear your baby from anywhere. 

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TempTraq

TempTraq is the first and only single-use, Bluetooth-connected, wearable temperature monitor. This wearable comes in a soft patch for babies and children that continuously and comfortably monitors body temperature for up to 48 hours. This data is then sent to your Apple or Android device in real time. The sensor lets parents keep track of multiple children and sends alerts about fevers without disrupting the wearer. When TempTraq was tested on pediatric cancer patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the device was able to detect fevers and temperature changes that episodic monitoring missed. 

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The Next Steps in Device Development

Some wearables are still in development, but they provide an interesting look at the next step for these devices. 

A professor at the University of Houston is developing a smartwatch to improve remote learning. This device would deliver information about student’s emotional and cognitive states while in the virtual classroom. Distance-learning makes it more difficult for professors to know who’s paying attention. This tool helps determine when student’s minds wander so professors can switch to a new activity to re-engage them. 

This wearable delivers information on three types of brain states: stress, cognitive engagement (boredom), and cognitive learning. This information comes from different body signals, including sweat response, respiration, cardiac function, and temperature. This algorithm shows a number of potential applications that could be useful outside education, such as care for the elderly who are home alone and possibly depressed.  

Stanford Medicine researchers are working with Fitbit and Scripps Research to develop a tool that predicts illness. Smartwatches and fitness trackers already measure vitals such as heart rate and temperature. When both of these areas elevate, it is a sign that the user’s body is fighting off infection or illness. This data could be used to detect early signs of viral infection.

These researchers are trying to train a series of algorithms that alert users when their immune system starts acting up. When people come down with a virus, there is a period before symptoms appear when the individual could still spread the disease. This team hopes to curb the spread of diseases like COVID-19 with their algorithm.

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The Benefits of Wearable Devices

We no longer live in a world where having a watch filled with helpful gadgets is just something you see on the big screen. Researches are working to develop devices that not only inform us of our health, but can even automatically fix the problems they detect.  

According to Insider Intelligence, a healthier corporate culture is shown to reduce employee turnover. Stats like these, coupled with this upward trend in wearable devices, are already influencing companies, insurers, and health providers to take advantage of the benefits these devices provide. Additionally, wearable technology can help ease tension on the health sector by reducing hospital visits from poorly managed personal health. Device connectivity will only expand as more accurate wearable sensors are developed, opening the door for many new opportunities in the future.

If you are in the wearable device industry and are in need of software, contact us and see how we can make your product shine!