Wearable Devices For Health Monitoring Comprehensive Guide for 2024

Posted in Healthcare Software

In the healthcare and wellness industry, users are increasingly shifting toward personalized and monitored healthcare. Innovation in mobile technology has skyrocketed the use of portable devices, and wearable health devices are evolving into impressive mobile health monitoring devices for medical care services.

In today’s world, AI, robots, intelligent sensors, big data, radar technologies, and digital health wearables help manage and prevent diseases. They can measure blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and respiration. This data helps doctors learn about declining health, worsening diseases, and other life-threatening situations (increased blood pressure or respiration problems). 

Are Wearable Medical Devices Good for Health Monitoring?

Wearable devices in healthcare include electronic health devices such as smartwatches and portable fitness trackers. These smart health devices are designed to measure users’ health metrics. As they are in high demand, their market is booming, requiring healthcare app developers to determine how they can deliver the best wearable fitness technology to people.

Understanding Healthcare Wearables 

These days, many wearable health devices, such as watches, earbuds, t-shirts, bands, and more, are emerging ubiquitously. Wearable healthcare technology has seamlessly integrated into society, with smartwatches and FitBits now considered mainstream. In light of this, the future of wearable technology exhibits no indications of decline.

Insider Intelligence reveals that over 80 percent of consumers actively seek to monitor their health, track vital signs, and eagerly embrace wearable gadgets. In recent years, consumer usage of wearable devices has tripled, showcasing a significant surge in adoption and interest.

Using Healthcare Variables

These medical monitoring devices enable users to instantly transmit health data to healthcare professionals and doctors. Yet, the main challenge of utilizing these consumer technologies lies in the absence of regulations and oversight concerning data collection and transmission.

Custom Healthcare software development service providers must guarantee that their medical monitoring devices adhere to HIPAA’s three critical aspects. Healthcare organizations must implement three essential best practices to safeguard patient data and adhere to the three primary HIPAA security requirements: physical security, technical security, and administrative security.

What Is Wearable Health Monitoring Technology Used For?

Wearable technology, commonly called wearables, are innovative smart health devices that individuals physically wear to analyze, track, and transmit personal data. These cutting-edge IoT devices are engineered to monitor biometric data, including sleep patterns, heart rate, and more. Consumers leverage health wearables to accurately transmit vital exercise, biological, and medical information to a database.

Notable examples of wearables include Fitbit and Apple Watch, but wearable devices extend far beyond these iconic models. Despite their varying functions, each wearable device collects millions of data points, from the number of steps taken to heart rate and beyond.

Wearable Tech in the Real World

Many professionals analyzing blood disorders have increasingly become interested in wearable trackers. Mobile applications, cuff-less blood pressure sensors, and wireless smartphone-enabled upper limb blood pressure monitors are the most commonly used health wearables for evaluating and regulating blood pressure.

Health Wearables can also help diagnose, screen, and monitor psychological disorders like depression and improve hospital patient management efficiency. Additionally, wireless transmission in wearable systems enables researchers to develop a new point-of-care diagnostic tool. Therefore, researchers expect individuals to use wearable health technology for the timely detection of health abnormalities.

Wearables Health Monitoring Devices and Health Care Cost

Current estimates indicate that wearable technology is poised to generate cost savings of approximately $200 billion in the global healthcare industry over the next three decades. This significant cost reduction is attributed to its increasingly reliable predictive capabilities.

As clinical decision-support system tools, wearable technologies can forecast the onset of latent conditions, such as pulmonary issues, before they manifest clinically. This empowers patients to explore cost-effective, more efficient treatment options with enhanced predictive accuracy, thereby avoiding prolonged, arduous, and expensive treatment regimens.

Real-World Interpretation 

With the global healthcare expenditure totaling around $9 trillion, a substantial portion originating from Western societies, wearable technology is projected to slash hospital expenses by roughly 16% in the coming years. 

This reduction will prove advantageous for hospital CEOs by curbing operational and telemedicine startup expenses within their domains. Concurrently, companies are incentivizing their employees by offering discounted fitness trackers to mitigate healthcare expenses and capitalize on the incentives provided by significant insurance firms.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Wearable Health Monitoring Technology?

Pros

• Wearables Increase Employee Productivity: As wearables allow medical staff to solve issues quicker, experts from the University of London found that wearable tech can boost staff productivity by 8.5%. For instance, some health monitoring devices allow healthcare providers to look inside a patient’s veins quickly. 
• Wearables Increase Employee Satisfaction: Human Cloud At Work conducted a study associated with Rackspace that shows that wearables raise job contentment by 3.5%. Since wearable technology improves staff productivity, job satisfaction simultaneously improves.
• Medical Wearables Enable Organizations to Track Employee Health: Organizations can use wearables to track the health and fitness of staff members as part of their health programs. Of the firms that design and run wellness programs, 40 to 50% of employees use trackers. The data collected by these gadgets is often correlated with incentive programs to reduce healthcare costs.

Cons

• Health Monitoring Devices are not Stand-Alone: Since wearables have small processors, they are usually connected to separate intelligent gadgets. For example, a fitness tracker must be related to a corresponding application on a smartphone or tablet. If business owners provide wearables to their employees, this may increase expenses.
• Health Wearables May Pose Security Risks: Wearables are always connected to the Internet, which makes them more prone to attacks. These gadgets are not always rigorously encrypted to protect personal data. 
• Health Wearables Can Have Health Risks: Professionals have expressed concern for the severe health risks that wearables may pose to consumers. This technology increases susceptibility to radio waves in consumers who already carry laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

What are the Health Risks Associated With Wearable Health Monitoring Devices?

Wearable technology, on the one hand, eases the lives of healthcare providers and patients by providing them with valuable and accurate data; on the other hand, it is likely to pose some health risks for consumers. Some wearable health monitoring devices can cause illnesses, injuries, and even death of patients or wearers. 

Common Risks of Using Wearable Devices In Healthcare

1 out of 100 users reported FitBit to have caused skin irritation or rashes on users’ wrists who wear it daily. It is because of the allergic reactions to the materials used in them. In 2017, a woman wearing a Fitbit got second-degree burns because her Fitbit caught fire. 

This device also poses electro-sensitive and EMF-related risks, including:

• Ringing Ears 
• Unexplained Hives 
• Chronic Headaches 
• A Weakened Immune System 
• Excessive Fatigue 
• Body Pain.

When exposed to prolonged pressure, the synthetic fabrics and metallic components utilized in constructing wearable technologies can trigger allergic reactions and skin sensitivity.

Furthermore, the continuous use of these health monitoring devices can lead to elevated temperatures, as they incorporate compact computing elements and powerful microprocessors. Prolonged exposure to these heightened temperatures significantly increases the risk of related injuries.

Examples Of Wearable Technology In Healthcare

While using a wearable device, users choose a health app to view all their newfound data. Many users opt for different apps, but these are the most popular.

1. Apple Health

An Apple Health app is automatically installed on an Apple Watch or an iPhone. It can also be downloaded on several other branded smart health devices. Apple Health automatically measures walking and running distance and steps and uses the wearer’s body measurements to calculate the calories they burn.

Additional activities such as distance, pushes, exercise minutes, resting energy, etc., can be added while enjoying your favorite music. Additionally, when connected with a fitness tracker or a smartwatch, it records the sleep cycle and heart rate.  

2. Samsung Health

Samsung Health is a goal-oriented and interactive fitness app that keeps you motivated with its gamifying techniques. For example, you can compete with friends or even participate in a global challenge to earn badges for your accomplishments.

Providing detailed graphs for each day demonstrates the progress you have made in nutrition, sleep, stress levels, heart rate, and activity.

3. Google Fit

To improve a user’s overall health, Google Fit focuses on two critical metrics: general activity and heart rate. It also focuses on the users’ movement minutes to foster more movement and less relaxation in one place throughout the day. 

Google Fit’s interface and actionable coaching tips help you see how well you need to accomplish your everyday goals. You can add your nutrition data manually to track your eating habits.

Are Wearable Medical Devices and Health Insurance Related?

Wearable technology and health insurance are interconnected through various health-focused mobile applications that enhance underwriting capabilities and contribute to improving individual well-being.

Fitness tracking tools gather health data that can offer insights into the wearer’s risk of morbidity and mortality. Insurers aim to integrate these metrics with data from diverse sources to expedite underwriting decisions, presenting a less intrusive approach to consumers than traditional methods. While insurance consumers often struggle to grasp the value of long-term protection products, digital consumers prioritize instant benefits and experiential value.

In response to this evolving landscape, insurers must ensure their products’ tangible and enduring nature remains pertinent. These devices empower insurers to furnish health-related insights to consumers, enhancing consumer health and well-being. Beyond insurance coverage, these devices enable insurers to deliver added value to consumers, fostering stronger consumer relationships and emphasizing a consumer-centric approach.

How Are Wearable Devices and Electronic Health Records Connected?

Patients increasingly leverage wearable devices to collect vital data and enhance their health management. However, data collection alone is insufficient; transmitting that data to a clinician’s EHR is crucial for practical integration into patient care management.

Clinicians must establish a connection between their EHRs and patients’ wearable devices to record health progress. The interface between EHR and medical wearables benefits patients by supporting ongoing primary care and chronic care management.

When procuring an EHR, discussing the cost and availability with the vendor is essential. During the purchase process, ensure that the selected EHR offers integration with medical wearables, incorporates external data into the patient’s medical record, and provides a feature for clinicians to view their patients’ data.

Wearable Technology in Healthcare Examples

The evolution of wearable tech and increasing user demand have prompted telemedicine software development to develop more and more wearable devices.  Some have pioneered health tracking and monitoring, while others are new. 

Due to the increasing demand for telemedicine in the current era, telemedicine software companies need to pace the development of quality software for better patient care. So, here are some examples of wearables in healthcare:

Health and Wellness Wearables

Wearable devices are primarily used in the health and fitness sectors. Some smart devices, such as an Apple Watch or a Fitbit, initiated how we track our heart rates and daily steps. Constantly reviewing them has become a part of everyday life for millions of people across the world.

With their collected data, these watches innately foster healthier lifestyles. Knowing how far you can run motivates you to push yourself more to win against your previous record. Tracking your sleep habits can help you choose shifts that promote sound sleep. In other words, fitness trackers and smartwatches are the best tools for promoting health and fitness.

Wearable Blood Pressure Monitors

The HeartGuide wearable blood pressure monitor may look like a typical smartwatch. However, an oscillometric monitor measures blood pressure and day-to-day activities- like distance traveled, calories burned, and the steps taken.

HeartGuide can hold as many as 100 readings in memory, which can be transmitted to a mobile app called HeartAdvisor for analysis, comparison, and treatment optimization. 

Biosensors

Biosensors are different from smartwatches and wrist trackers. Philip’s wearable biosensor, a self-adhesive patch, allows patients to move around while the biosensor collects data on their heart rate, movement, temperature, and respiratory rate.

Some studies show that this wearable tech has reduced up to 89% of patient deterioration into uncertain respiratory and cardiac arrest. This indicates that medical wearables can improve patient health and lower staff workload.

What is the Future of Wearable Technology?

In the future, wearable technology will evolve beyond fitness trackers, offering a wide range of innovative devices. Advances in material fabrication are already reducing the size of wearables, enabling the creation of flexible electronics powered by compact energy sources that can quickly recharge. 

Combining wearable technology with improved IoT capabilities will allow for seamless data exchange, providing users with real-time comfort, safety, and information at their fingertips or wrists. Consumers increasingly rely on wearable gadgets for intelligent healthcare, as these devices offer immediate and convenient access to health data. These devices also feature advanced capabilities, such as adapting to user needs by substituting senses. 

Common examples include:

• A wrist device can convert speech into vibration patterns for deaf people, allowing them to learn and associate each pattern with a specific sound. Wearable technology will focus more on safety in the future. 
• A personal alarm button can be worn on the wrist while RFID-blocking wearables can prevent identity theft. Additionally, sunglasses with positional sensors will give users real-time location information and direction.

Unobtrusive Sensing and Wearable Devices for Health Informatics

Health informatics is an evolving interdisciplinary field that enhances public health (p-health). It involves accessing, transferring, processing, storing, retrieving, and utilizing various biomedical and health information. Among the critical technologies in health informatics are sensing and imaging, with this article specifically addressing sensing technologies and their role in healthcare.

Unobtrusive sensing is applied in healthcare through two main methods:

• Firstly, sensors integrated into everyday items like clothing, eyeglasses, shoes, gloves, earrings, and watches enable consumers to experience unobtrusive sensing.
• Secondly, sensors embedded in smart objects such as mirrors, car seats, chairs, mattresses, and steering wheels interact with consumers, providing unobtrusive sensing capabilities.

Sensing technologies have advanced significantly and are now available in compact, lightweight, and minimally intrusive wearable devices with integrated features. These devices, coupled with improvements in data fusion, sensing, and networking, have revolutionized their applications in healthcare.

Enabled by wireless connectivity and widespread internet access, these devices offer real-time information and facilitate prompt remote interventions during critical events like epilepsy, stroke, and heart attacks in underserved medical areas.

Unobtrusive monitoring through wearables delivers comprehensive health and fitness data via flexible displays or mobile devices. It promotes an active lifestyle, aids in identifying health risks, and supports early preventive measures. Wearables and unobtrusive sensing allow continuous monitoring of daily physical activities, behaviors, and various physiological and biochemical parameters. 

Commonly measured metrics include: 

• Blood Pressure
• Heart Rate
• Ballistocardiogram
• Blood Oxygen Saturation
• ECG
• Body Temperature
• Physical Activity

Contact our specialists for expert guidance on Medical Device Software development.

Working With Folio3 Digital Health 

Whether you are looking to build a healthcare application, practice management software, or any tool required to leverage the power of wearable technology, Folio3 Digital Health has all the answers you need.

Working with Folio3 gives you access to our teams of developers and designers, each with years of experience in this domain. All digital health development is HIPAA compliant and incorporates HL7 and FHIR data standards, ensuring safe and secure data.  You can rest assured that all project aspects, from start to finish, will be taken care of.

Conclusion

Wearable devices revolutionized health monitoring in 2024, offering individuals unprecedented insights into their well-being and empowering them to take proactive steps towards better health. These devices are indispensable tools for health-conscious individuals, tracking vital signs, monitoring fitness levels, and detecting potential health issues.

The integration of wearable devices into healthcare will only deepen as technology advances. These devices will provide healthcare professionals with valuable data for more personalized care and enable individuals to take charge of their health like never before. Embracing wearable devices for health monitoring in 2024 is a significant step towards a healthier, more informed future.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Are wearable devices safe?

Wearable devices can often expose people to unsafe situations because they emit radiation and can be hacked. Fitbit causes users more health issues, such as headaches, dizziness, and nausea while wearing them.

What are wearable devices used in healthcare?

Consumers use wearable devices to track and control their health data. These fitness devices not only track health but also give wearers health recommendations. Fitbit, Apple Watch, and Blood Pressure Monitors are a few examples of wearable devices. 

Can wearable devices detect health abnormalities?

Yes, wearable devices can detect health abnormalities in different body parts. Eye-based wearables, such as head—and wrist-based wearables, monitor other physiological and psychological parameters, which are then used to diagnose different diseases. 

Does wearable technology improve health?

Wearables can improve patient health by detecting health imbalances early and offering features to share the data with healthcare providers. Using that data, care providers can suggest specific measures to improve consumers’ health. 

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