Aldous Huxley’s thought provoking novel of a future Utopian society never saw digital healthcare coming. After attending Health Tech’s recent panel discussion on wearable technology, personalized digital healthcare is here today. And I’m not talking about the Fitbit craze but a multipoint data tracking system that virtually transmits your personal health data to your healthcare provider where wearables become an early warning health system.
Imagine if your doctor could track and record your blood pressure over time and alert you of potential heart attack…from her office! What if your doctor could remotely spot Atrial Fibrillation through irregular heart palpitations to prevent a stroke? In the very near future, life changing medical events like these will be averted by healthcare start-up companies finding solutions using wearable medical devices. Maybe the most promising areas are devices in behavioral health & the diabetic world. From a technology perspective, there are hurdles to overcome. Perhaps the biggest is data accuracy. Building wearable medical sensors that can precisely detect unambiguous health irregularities is a challenge. Also, the wearable device form factor becomes literally a very large issue for people. Who wants to haul around a sensor the size of a laptop? Hence, sensor micronization becomes paramount in form vs function. Finally, as with all game-changing technology, let the platform wars begin! Apple, Microsoft, and Google have released digital healthcare software platforms in order to unify code development, attract software developers, and ultimately win consumers.
Regardless of who wins the wearable platform wars, consumers will greatly benefit in the brave new world of digital personal healthcare. Now if only pharmaceutical companies could manufacture Soma!
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