Before there were smart watches that could call 911 or smart rings that predicted diseases, there was the fitbit, which cut the clothes and the stages and the calories.
The aircraft was launched in 2007 and has instantly became a success among the first adopters and fitness enthusiasts. At the time, if a user wanted to display his data, he had to synchronize the device with a computer to see it on the Fitbit website.
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It is different worlds of fitness and health technology that circulates today which automatically captures our heart rate and our variability because it beats and displays them on a graph with ideas and instant recommendations – or we Informed of our stress levels, then offers breathing exercises to reduce them.
The second decade of portable health technology
While the first decade of portable health technology was marked by deployment and accessibility – to put the devices on as many wrists as possible – this second decade is more concerned with following much more health measures than ever and Create more discreet biotechnology that mixes the background in our daily life at the end.
We see this the most poignant with the dawn of the intelligent ring, a non -painful alternative and without screen to the clumsy intelligent watch that follows our sleep, our activity and our stress. The lifespan of its battery lasts more days than that of most watches.
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We are two years from the 20th anniversary of Fitbit, the first portable fitness tracker to the general public which has fundamentally changed the health technology industry. So, what major improvement will the third decade of Wearable Tech be marked? These marks give us some clues.
A new vision of health surveillance
During the presentation of Praveen Raja on the new features of the Samsung Health Application at the company’s annual unparalleled event, the Samsung digital health manager offered a mission statement for the brand of the brand on health surveillance. “Our vision is to develop a complete system that supports you through each stage of your health career,” said Raja. “Measuring your current health to give you personalized information and coaching, and connect with suppliers and caregivers.
Let us decompose this vision into two categories: already accomplished and to be carried out. Measure the current health? Check. His galaxy watches and Galaxy rings Already do it. Offering personalized health and coaching information? Check.
Also: Samsung Health adds these personalized wellness features
Of course, they could continue to improve it thanks to new features and updates, but this is almost accomplished. Connect users with suppliers and caregivers? It has not yet been accomplished. But Raja implies that this link between health care providers and portable users is the next for the technology giant.
In other brands, it’s already there. Take with it, the manufacturer of smart watches, intelligent scales and blood pressure monitors. Earlier this month, he unveiled the cardio assessment, a functionality available for members of Withings + which send heart rate data collected via a device with a cardiologist certified on the map for evaluation and detailed comments, which is returned to the user within 24 hours.
With the partners of Heartbeat Health Partners, a “Special Care” health care company compatible with technology with the greatest virtual cardiologist in the United States, to ensure that cardio control takes place.
The future of health technology
These partnerships are the future of health technology. And it’s not only with hikes. Smart Ring Brand Oura announced in October a partnership “all the first of its kind” with the supplier Medicare Advantage (MA) Essence Healthcare.
From this year, members of the Medicare Advantage petrol can receive a free oura ring and a subscription to the application for health surveillance purposes. In a press release, Essence wrote that this is the first and the only MA plan to offer such a configuration.
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Essence is a value-based care provider, which is slightly different from most health care in the United States. Value -based care focuses more on patients’ results in patients over time, with remuneration structures that reward suppliers of healthier populations, compared to care care, which compensates for suppliers for Each medical service they provide, the vice-president of Oura health care, Jason Oberfest, explained to me.
Oberfest explained that primary care is faced with many challenges. On the one hand, there are a limited number of clinicians available to support patients, exerting additional pressure on an already exceeded health system. Could portable technology not only make primary care more effective for the supplier and the patient, but also help suppliers to identify who needs more help? Oberfest thinks.
“Oura data really help these care teams to understand where an individual is in his own health journey and helps them reflect on the ways to discuss the improvement of health choices with the individual with whom he works in A care manager, “said Oberfest.
Oberfest explained that any member of the petrol plan has the possibility of receiving an Oura ring. When creating the ring, the member is invited to share if they wish to share their health information with a care team to receive more effective care.
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Once they have opted, their data is transmitted to the care team. Having longitudinal and personalized data at hand when visiting a doctor means that the care provider compares the data he brings together when visiting a person’s historical averages – and not national averages – This can help them identify the irregularities that they cannot otherwise, Nosa, our. Shyamamal Patel explained to me.
When asked if this model – offer free portable devices to health members to monitor their health more effectively – could be the future of health care, Oberfest said it was a very strong possibility. He also said that, although Oura’s partnership with a health care provider like petrol is a first, the Smart Ring brand has other similar partnerships in categories such as metabolic, cardiovascular and women.
There are waves of stories on Reddit on people using portable technology like Oura or Apple Watch to obtain a professional health diagnosis. A Reddit poster told how their ring Oura urged them to see a general practitioner after having recorded heart palpitations and stress peaks. In the doctor, they were diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.
“I know it’s fun to follow your sleep and your activity, but my ring Oura seriously helped me to go through this difficult period of my life. This helped me diagnose myself (my doctor took the data seriously) and made me more in line with my body, “the user wrote.
As much as AI doomers say that AI will make health professionals obsolete, reality is more collaborative between technology that assesses health data using AI laptops and doctors that provide diagnoses . Airpods Pro 2, related to Apple, works not only as hearing aids, but also offer users a hearing test that they can do in their doctor for a diagnosis of hearing loss. The same goes for the Apple Watch Series 10 and its sleep apnea detection function.
Also: Can the Oura ring predict when you are about to get sick?
There is, of course, the question or concern that technological brands and health care brands could abuse or not protect this customer data or invoice people from different prices depending on the data it collects, such as the In which certain insurance companies offer rates below the law, yield pilots which install monitoring devices in cars. Since it is simply a prediction, we do not yet have the answers to these concerns.
Portable medical devices will continue to grow
According to Fortune Business Insights, the portable medical devices market should drop from $ 91.21 billion in 2024 to 324.73 billion dollars by 2032.
This growth comes as the competitive obstacles of the health care industry are eroded by “technological progress, regulations, data sharing standards and authorized health care consumers”, as Patricia Birch and William Shea in a blog article cognizing on industry challenges.
Oberfest says that the second decade of portable technology concerns less the simple presentation of the data and more on the context provided by the information to the user. “It is a question of helping the individual to put this information in context and to make better decisions each day following information,” said Oberfest.
