Health monitoring or medical wearables and their applications are a recent pioneering trend in health care with cascading effects across multiple platforms. Wearables that go beyond the trackers for fitness, i.e., Fitbit, offer options for patients with ailments like fevers, asthma, hypertension, atrial fibrillation. By monitoring, recording, and analyzing an individual’s immediate data, a dedicated application can store the information for later review, export, and share with his or her health provider. All are aimed at improving health, closing the gap between providers and patients, and making life easier for the consumer. The innovative products are disrupting the healthcare industry. Health Monitoring Wearables & Applications There is an infinite opportunity that medical wearables and their applications will transform healthcare. More and more wearables are becoming clinically appropriate with ease-of-use driving more consumers to adopt as a part of their daily lives, which can only help drive down healthcare costs. Many of the first-advantage movers, such as Apple and AliveCor ® for heart monitoring saw tremendous success with the new technology. According to Suarez & Lanzolla (2005), “Two factors that powerfully influence a first mover’s fate: the pace at which the technology of the product in question is evolving and the pace at which the market for that product is expanding” (para. 4). The market was, and is, expanding, but it was just a matter of time before many other companies jumped at the chance to introduce their applications. Disruption of Healthcare Industry Medical wearables offer immediate access to data for quicker analyses, diagnoses, and treatments; the far-reaching implications can only enhance healthcare with minimal cost upfront and long-term cost savings by keeping patients engaged in their healthcare and out of the acute hospital setting. One of the biggest challenges to using wearable devices is drawing meaningful medical conclusions from the collected data, and providing reliable, trustworthy information for patients and doctors to act on (AliveCor, 2018, para. 1). The advancement of medical wearable technology is transforming and disrupting the healthcare industry with traditional processes like follow-up clinic visits for routine blood pressure checks or glucose monitoring now performed via monitoring device and uploaded to the patient’s health record. The new technology requires minimal specialized skills so is considered cost-effective. Barriers. Despite all the above, the technology is not yet mainstream, and this is due to the strict accuracy and safety standards that must be met for validation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Regulatory obstacles, compliance issues, and navigating insurance reimbursement must all be considered when contemplating the broader use of medical-grade wearable devices” (Bolduc, 2017, para. 4). In the face of the obstacles, medical wearable applications will triumph since they are a critical piece of transformative healthcare and population engagement; especially, with the current healthcare challenges. According to Markets and Markets (2018), “The global market for medical wearable devices is projected to reach $14.4 billion by 2022” (para. 1). There are many big company players, jumping on the bandwagon, banking on solid predictions that the growth of this market is driven by medical applications and the need to drive down healthcare costs. Conclusion When the clinical relevance is realized, and safety and quality standards are met, the health monitoring or medical wearables and their applications will take center stage in home care coordination. Improved patient engagement, decreased overall costs, and better outcomes are achievable with this technology innovation – and it is not just disrupting the patient healthcare industry, but transforming it. References AliveCor. (2018). Bridging the gap between wearables and healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.alivecor.com/technology/ Bolduc, M. (2017, June). The future of medical wearables. Retrieved from https://www.mpo-mag.com/issues/2017-06-01/view_columns/the-future-of-medical-wearables Markets & Markets. (2018, January). Wearable medical devices market by device (diagnostic (heart, pulse, BP, sleep), therapeutic (pain, insulin, rehabilitation - global forecast to 2022. Retrieved from https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wearable-medical-device-market-81753973.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAmb7RBRATEiwA7kS8VNa5y7oFWGL6JgvR5HeH4-8NGxnVtm5W3mTby2ZNd0rGdwcPUxaDohoCLI8QAvD_BwE Mashtips.com. (2018, January). Best health monitoring devices to work with iPhone & iPad. Retrieved from https://mashtips.com/ios-health-monitoring-devices/ Suarez, F., & Lanzolla, G. (2005, April). The half-truth of first-mover advantage. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2005/04/the-half-truth-of-first-mover-advantage
