Wearable Technology's Endless Possibilities in Healthcare

Smartphones and smartwatches continue to play a significant role in healthcare. Data from smart patches are connected with wristwatches and smartphone apps, allowing data to be displayed and analyzed on these devices.

FREMONT, CA: The Wearable IoT (WIoT) in healthcare is a network of patient-worn smart devices with sensors, actuators, and software connected to the cloud that enables the real-time collection analysis and transmission of personal health data.

While healthcare firms make a variety of devices, such as blood pressure cuffs and ECG monitors, that assist patients in monitoring health parameters, the pandemic emphasized the value of smartwatches for health monitoring. As COVID-19 expanded, smart watches that monitor blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) were more commonly available, warning individuals with low SpO2 of potentially fatal indication that is difficult to identify. More than 10 percent of smartwatch owners in the United States currently utilize them to identify COVID-19 symptoms. The pandemic may have boosted sales of smartwatches: 15 percent of US customers who own a smartwatch bought it following the commencement of COVID-19.

Concentrate on providing individualized patient care and medical device technological breakthroughs. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for remote monitoring and care delivery. The increasing geriatric population, and illnesses, are becoming more common, necessitating ongoing monitoring for improved results.

Existing wristwatch sensor technology has limitations that it can accomplish without sticking to or penetrating under a person's skin. This is where smart fixes come into play. Smart patches are generally thin and inconspicuous, affixing directly to a person's skin and produced mostly by medtech businesses. Some "minimally invasive" smart patches employ small needles to function as biosensors and sometimes to administer drugs via the skin.

Unlike smartwatches, which give various health data and insights, smart patches are primarily developed for a particular indication, such as diabetes control, patient monitoring, and medicine administration. Smart patches also make use of a larger spectrum of technologies. Smart patches that monitor heart rate variability, for example, frequently employ ECG technology, which records the heart's electrical activity more directly and precisely than smartwatches.