There’s an emerging trend in the healthcare industry with medical wearables. Wearable devices that monitor bio signals with high fidelity could be part of a healthy lifestyle. Much like devices used in hospitals, wearable diagnostics present positive disruption to biotechnology and the health care industry.

Wearable healthcare technology consists of users wearing devices on their wrists like a watch, their feet, head or limbs and they can accurately monitor anything from the number of steps you take during the day to tracking more serious conditions like diabetes and asthma. They collect the user’s wellbeing and fitness data, providing a personalised database of health metrics that the user can set fitness or wellbeing goals against or indeed have remote data collected for monitoring by a healthcare professional. 

Internationally, healthcare wearables are growing rapidly with devices becoming more commonplace for consumers to customise their healthcare experiences. 

Wearables like the Fitbit have been fashionable in fitness for some time and have paved the way for more specific health conditions to be monitored. Since the pandemic, consumers are more interested and invested in tracking their health and managing their own needs with less reliance on the healthcare system and appointment booking to monitor their health.

There are a number of trends within the wearable healthcare sector including:

• Exploration of technology beyond what is strapped to the body with ‘smart fabrics’ or textiles embedded with sensors to track metrics.
• Early detection of Covid-19 prior to symptoms being shown
• Prevention of medical events in asthma with the ability to track breathing and oxygen levels along with environmental conditions such as pollen count
• Under skin sensors to assess glucose levels in diabetic patients, alerting healthcare providers in situations requiring rapid response

Consumers are more aware of step tracking software and in some cases of being able to manage conditions like diabetes. There are numerous biotechnology companies developing wearable sensors further using specific biomarkers, here we explore some of our favourites.

Biosensics
Developing wearable sensors and digital platforms for clinical trials, patient monitoring and health assessment. One of their technologies include voice biomarkers currently being used in NIH-funded studies for Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases for the automatic assessment of dysarthria and disease-specific speech problems.

X-wrist
Real-time health data shared with medical professionals, nutritionists and fitness coaches, putting the wearer in control. The ability to monitor heart rate, blood pressure, ECG and PPG using biosensors.

Aktiia
A less invasive way to monitor blood pressure using photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals with no pain or inflated sleeve. Their optical signals go beyond heart rate and counting pulses by examining their shape, giving a more accurate reading of your blood pressure. Their work is supporting the reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

Transdermal Diagnostics
Pioneering the development of wearable technology starting with a solution for diabetes with their unique sensing architecture which requires no needles or blood. The technology draws out biological substances through individual hair follicles using a disposable adhesive skin patch. This will be the world’s first 100% needle free platform for blood sugar monitoring, putting the diabetes patient in control. Read more about their recently secured funding here.

The future of biotechnology is promising when you consider the wearables market. There is further talk of artificial intelligence being used alongside wearables to enhance health care quality and reduce medical costs. Imagining a world where technology is used to manage healthcare is becoming more possible.

Wearables are designed to improve prevention, diagnosis and management of chronic conditions improving the quality of life for patients, personalising their healthcare solutions and reducing costs for the healthcare sector.

To find out more about how Biophys can support your biotechnology business to achieve the same, contact us today for a chat.