You do not have to look far these days to find someone wearing a Fitbit or smart watch to help them track their fitness goals like the number of steps we take each day or help us keep an eye on our heart rate in between email and text notifications.
By Jamie Barrie
There is a lot of research going into these wearable devices that may have a larger impact on your day to day life than just counting steps in the near future.
Technology companies are in a race to develop new biosensors that can track a whole lot more about the human body. The goal being that this new technology would open up more opportunities to detect medical problems like abnormal heart rhythms, using consumer- friendly devices that people will be comfortable wearing every day.
According to biomedical experts this is what is next for these wearable devices:
Tracking blood pressure
This would offer a user-friendly and continuous way for people with high blood pressure, who are at a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and strokes to monitor their condition using the technologies to catch potential problems long before they’re life-threatening.
Tracking blood sugar
There are more than 29 million people in the U.S. alone that have diabetes, and could benefit from this technology to track their blood glucose levels. In order to monitor this today even the most state-of- the-art technologies rely on tiny needles to pierce the skin.
But this would not limit the benefit to those that have diabetes as there is a growing trend of people measuring their blood sugar to find out how they react to certain foods and to exercise, and use that information to live better, for longer.
Tracking mental health
This is huge for drug companies that are looking to understand mental health outcomes for their clinical trials; patients and their providers who want to pick up on early warning signs; and hospitals that are looking for better indicators into patients’ health status.
But this is no easy feat, as current wearable devices, like smart watches, often provide very weak signals so extracting information and turning that into a conclusion about a person’s health will offer many challenges.
What are the timelines for this technology? Well I would not hold off going out to get that new glucometer as the timeline for this new technology is about 2 to 5 years, but may take 10 years to get to market, as companies will need to figure out a marketing plan and these new technologies will not come cheap and someone will have to pay for it.