For one, two or more reasons wearable technology in healthcare has come to stay and sure holds the promise for the move of medical healthcare delivery systems from that of treatment to prevention which should be the key for every healthcare delivery goal.
On one hand, wearable health devices set the stage for better and faster healthcare delivery. On the other hand, it creates business opportunities in the healthcare sector running into billions of dollars annually for healthcare providers, hardware and software companies, etc. So whichever side you find yourself let’s explore wearables in healthcare, their benefits, what are the different types of wearable devices? And what are some examples of wearable technology?
What Is A Wearable Device?
On wearable technology in healthcare, a wearable device refers to a portable skin-worn electronic device that helps you keep track of your health status, vital signs, physical activities, sleep levels, sun exposure, weight gain or loss; virtually everything that has to do with one’s health.
Wearable healthcare trackers could be worn remotely and used in capturing health indices for monitoring or storage. Wearable healthcare devices could also be synchronized with multiple healthcare monitoring devices and sensors. Within a network, you could capture medical data and upload to a medical facility monitoring system for analysis or a personal computer or smart device. Such data could then be forwarded to a physician for medical analysis when necessary.
What Are the Different Types of Wearable Devices?
You can get different types of wearable devices available providing some of the best wearable technology for healthcare delivery. Wearable health devices include for:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Sleep disorders
- Asthma
- Epilepsy
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Geriatric/ Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS)
- In-hospital Monitoring devices
What Are Some Examples of Wearable Technology?
Examples of wearable health devices include smart wristbands and watches, wares to include shirts, shorts, and shoes; headbands, necklaces, belts, and eyeglasses, etc. Wearable health devices make use of sensors that help detect ones vital signs to provide the best wearable technology help.
Impact of Technology in Healthcare
The impact of technology in healthcare is in the least a monumental one and we shall explore this more under the benefits of technology in healthcare particularly for wearable technology in healthcare. But no doubt wearable healthcare monitoring devices is creating a disruption in healthcare delivery systems, moving individuals from treatment to healthcare prevention using wearable technology in healthcare.
However, to look at the new wearable technology you also need to understand or answer the question of how or what sensors would be used in a hospital? And in answering, basically, wearable technology depends on the use of sensor-driven devices to collect health data of an individual for storage using an app on the device, phone or laptop. These sensors can compute medical data raw and send to a database or alerts the medical practitioner in the case of an abnormal situation. It could also be used to set and monitor health goals, diet goals, weight goals and once a person reaches a particular milestone they receive a congratulatory message.
In a nutshell, wearable technology is redefining healthcare delivery systems from an inpatient or face-to-face consulting situation to a patient, technology, and physician-driven one.
Benefits of Technology in Healthcare
For staying fit and energetic
Having access to the best wearable fitness device can help increase your chances to keep your energy levels high and maintain mental and physical alertness always. Because wearable healthcare monitoring devices have the capacity to monitor one’s everyday activities both when active or inactive it then becomes possible to stay fit almost always. When one’s energy levels begin to drop, fluctuating pulse rate and more you can easily notice and then take action to correct an anomaly.
Some of the best wearable fitness device or wearable health trackers you can find commonly used are those by fitness and sports people since they tend to use these more often. But wearable technology in healthcare devices has gradually become popular for other health reasons beyond sports and physical fitness for all the obvious reason we discuss in this article.
For getting rid of stress in your life
New wearable technology can help make health measures more proactive than reactive thereby reducing one’s stress levels. A stressed situation can lead to anxiety, asthma, heart disease, headaches, diabetes, obesity, etc. Also, operating under stress could lead to a loss of focus, insomnia or sleeplessness as well as lower emotional state or wellbeing.
Instead of individuals having symptoms of sickness, fatigue or been stressed-out before seeing a medical practitioner, using wearable health trackers can help one lead a stress-free life.
For keeping your heart healthy
Particularly for persons with the tendency to develop health complications that could affect the heart or have poor health habits that could weaken the state of their heart, using a wearable technology in healthcare could just save the individual from irregularities, heart disease. For instance, poor dietary habits could result in heart complications but using wearable health devices can help alert the individual about the inherent dietary habit dangers.
Wearable healthcare monitoring devices make use of sensors and therefore offer great benefit for older citizens to ensure timely interventions. These sensors can detect epileptic seizures, falls, provide feedback for physiotherapy cases at home or cases of heart failures in the elderly and send an alert beforehand.
For exercising in the most effective way
Wearable health trackers can help you achieve better conditions with your health during exercises. Exercises are great for keeping you fit and healthy but it is also necessary to measure how much physical activity you get and check the results of such activities using wearables in Healthcare. A lot of athletes use wearable healthcare monitoring devices to check their heart rates during training and exercises you too can. It pays to know your body’s capability per time.
Exercise improves life expectancy, a healthier heart, leaner muscles, maintain body weights and more; therefore, wearable health devices can be your personal health tracker.
For having the best night’s sleep
Some of the best wearable technology can help guarantee a better sleep situation. We sometimes get carried away with work, bringing tasks home after the day’s work, staying up late to chat on our smart devices, seeing a movie, waking up quite early or not just giving our bodies enough sleep time and to help rejuvenate worn-out tissue.
Having wearable devices in healthcare can help one track sleep situations to know if one is having adequate sleep time. Inadequate sleep can result in a lot of health complications, poor health, looks, brainpower and overall wellbeing.
Besides the above, studies show that most heart failures occur between 1-5a.m. Therefore, understanding one’s average heart rate at night can help provide an early indication of an impending medical complication like sleep apnea caused by obstructions to the heart.
Predictions about wearable devices in healthcare by IHS indicate a rise globally from 96 million units ($5.8 billion) in 2012 to 210 million units ($30 billion) in 2018.
On World identifies the fact that the general health and fitness device industry hits 80% rise for mobile sensing devices globally in 2017.
Therefore, wearable technology in healthcare definitely opens a new vista to better healthcare systems and a more holistic adoption by individuals and healthcare facilities will over time help reduce complications arising from poor health choices resulting in better wealth creation opportunities; health they say is wealth.
The overall idea is a wearable healthcare monitoring device that gives the individual much comfort and convenience even if the need arises to put it on all day long or weekly. The benefit of skin-worn or wearable health devices is that you can have them under your clothing or on the arm without much interference with your normal life.
