Pulse on the Future: Wearable tech is big business in health care

Track your steps. Monitor your sleep. Check your blood sugar. Alert emergency officials. Count your calories.

Wearable devices have become the intersection between technology and personal health care, a veritable smorgasbord of data and information literally at your fingertips.

With popularity skyrocketing in recent years and this season’s go-to Christmas gift, wearable devices will hit an estimated $14 billion in sales for 2016, according to mobile communications think tank CCS Insight.

“People want to be aware of their health, but we are so fast paced. To sit down and physically track these things takes time,” said Amy Francis, Mercy health and wellness coordinator.

The industry is poised for more growth. The Cupertino, California-based CCS estimates 411 million smart wearable devices worth $34 billion will be sold in 2020. Brands such as FitBit, Jawbone and Apple Watch lead the pack, but advancements in medical technology are changing the game and the way health care professionals look at wearables.

“Everything is virtual now, especially in health care. It’s consuming the market,” Francis said. “The future of wearables is in disease management. There are many avenues being explored right now.

“I don’t think wearables have peaked. They are like the iPhone; they are a part of our lives now and will continue to constantly evolve.”

Medical movement
Future generations of wearable gadgets may be able to detect and mitigate health problems rather than simply relay health data. That’s the goal of a recent federally funded project applying big-data tools to mobile sensors. MIT Technology Review reports the project, called MD2K, won $10.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop hardware and software that compiles and analyzes health data generated by wearable sensors. MD2K’s ultimate goal is to use these sensors and data to anticipate and prevent adverse health events, such as addiction relapse.

Locally, Oxford HealthCare just rolled out two new wearables that utilize a clinically validated predictive algorithm to better forecast patient falls and increase response time in the case of a fall.

The CoxHealth affiliate will add the GoSafe and CareSage medical technologies to its existing Lifeline service. Both are designed to accommodate a more active lifestyle, and Oxford Executive Director of Health Care Services Shallina Goodnight said the products can be worn as a necklace pendant or a bracelet. “This is as much about patient independence as it is about quality of life,” Goodnight said.

A mobile version of Lifeline – the popular, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” button – GoSafe uses GPS to locate a fallen patient, has a two-way communicator function with emergency responders and can actually detect if a person has fallen.

“The device is constantly monitoring things like your velocity and normal gate,” Goodnight said. “If one of those metrics rockets up because of a fall, we know. About 75 percent of the people who fall can’t press the button. Auto alert solves that problem.”

Goodnight estimates more than 2,000 Oxford patients use the product. Springfield resident Jack Wilson is one such patient. Daughter Tara Salois said it gives her peace of mind her 75-year-old father is safe.

“My dad is active, he goes places, but I want to make sure he’s safe,” she said, noting Wilson uses the pendant version. “He’s had it about five months and hasn’t had to use it, but I know it makes him feel safe, too.”

Oxford also recently introduced CareSage, which similarly predicts when patients may be at-risk for a fall in the next 30 days. This prediction enables clinical intervention and care coordination to address concerns before they become medical emergencies.

“Lifeline is wonderful if you fall, but what if we could prevent that from happening in the first place?” Goodnight said.

Running between $30 and $60 a month per patient, Goodnight said the CareSage algorithm combines trackable physical metrics with health records to monitor changes. For example, the system recently detected a gate change in a diabetic Oxford patient. Goodnight said the lady was low on insulin in the afternoon, causing sluggishness. A simple trip to the doctor and insulin adjustment fixed the problem.

“She could have fallen, she could have gone into a diabetic coma, but she didn’t,” Goodnight said.

But do they work?
CCS Insight analysts say wrist-based devices – such as smartwatches and fitness trackers – continue to dominate the industry. It forecasts half of all wearable tech sales over the next 12 months will be from these genres, with smartwatches making up 50 percent of the estimated 60 million shipments.

In its 200-page initial public offering filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 5, Fitbit Inc. (NYSE: FIT) confirmed it’s leading the fitness-tracker industry. The company sold nearly 11 million devices and generated $745.4 million in 2015 revenue and since 2007, Fitbit has sold almost 21 million devices.

“Do they make you healthier? There isn’t really proof of that,” Mercy’s Francis said. “But are they a motivator to better yourself? For some people, that’s absolutely true.”

Francis said the accuracy of step counters like Fitbit vary widely, but if a user only seeks self-improvement, that may be all the motivation a person needs.

“If you walked 20,000 steps yesterday and look down to see you’ve only walked 2,000 today, you are going to step it up,” she said.

Proven results or not, many insurance providers use fitness-tracker data as an incentive. Sync a device with apps from companies such as Humana and earn points to be spent in a virtual mall on gift cards to places like Target and Best Buy.

At Mercy, Francis said earned points count toward real money on employee paychecks. Walk 30 minutes and earn a point, do a sanctioned 5K and earn 10, etc. Collect 100 points and get $100 per quarter. The system even allows spouses to participate if they’re on the insurance plan.

Sustained engagement is a challenge in the wearable industry, with industry estimates putting longevity of use at 6 months. Roughly half of all trackers purchased now sit unused in a drawer, according to a study by consulting firm Endeavour Partners.

“Personal motivation is hard for some. If these help for even a bit, that might be worth it,” Francis said. “Wearables are a money-making industry; they aren’t going away anytime soon.”

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