Technology is advancing at a fast-paced, and thus helping every industry to see the best of itself. One such tech is the Internet of Things. With the new ideas and concepts developing now and then, IoT has to offer us many innovative and helpful gadgets to make our lives simpler. Okay, now let’s leave the mystery aside and get to the point. Wearable technology is one such IoT invention that has made too much progress already and is still paving its way through making more.
What comes to our mind when we think of wearables? Very simple! Fitness trackers or smartwatches, correct? However, we are underestimating the potential of wearable devices. It has much more than just that. Besides tracking safety at construction sites, ensuring kids get off the bus, and reach home safely, wearables are also useful in the health care sector.
Wearable innovation displays the power of IoT and its immeasurable benefits, especially in the medical sector. The IoT provides a collection of information from sensor-empowered gadgets and gets you the data right to your fingertips, with some taps on your mobile apps by
wearable app development company. In the era of Amazon Echo and Google Home, the IoT has empowered us to manage the thermostats, lights, oven, and laundry.
This will come to your surprise, but by 2027, the wearable tech market might reach $150 billion. The medical sector gets anticipated to own a fraction of market share as patients, nurses, and doctors implement it into their lives. This smart tech has entered into the medical field, thus offering us “Medical Internet of Things” (MIoT). According to Allied Market Research, MIoT might reach a net value of $136.8 billion globally. This MIoT constitutes a total of 40% in the entire IoT.
Alright, let’s deep dive into the matter of how the wearable tech is enhancing the health care sector.
Patient Get Self-reliant
Many patients discuss their wearable information with doctors, even if they are not required to track their vitals for health reasons. This device keeps track of your exercise routines and sleep patterns, which are significant for overall health, but are not a part of medical records, unless patients discuss the data and doctors note it down. Analyzing the information from wearables and electronic health records, patients can observe their wellbeing and take the initiative to share the information. The relationship with doctors becomes discussion-based, instead of advice-based.
Virtual Docter Visit
Wearables allow doctors to examine their patients without the need to have a physical check-up, thus saving time and money. Kids with an ear infection can be sent home wearing a gadget that takes a virtual ear test, making it unnecessary to visit the clinic for follow-ups. Wearable devices assist old patients in supervising their macular degeneration, diabetes, neuropathic pain, and other such /things.
Assists With disability
Wearable devices assist impaired people control their routines lives without outside help. Special glasses empowers the blind persons to see, and haptic shoes offer GPS tech for them to locate. Smart glasses enable people with cerebral palsy to conduct internet research and take photos. Other wearables assist people to regulate diabetes, heart disease, and sleep apnea.
Monitoring Patients Remotely
Wearables have drastically enhanced in accuracy and reliability, and also matching medical standards. Many illnesses and therapeutic levels can be monitored distantly, such as glucose levels, heart rate, oxygenation, blood pressure, and others. After observation, alerts are sent to the medical facilities.
Wearable tech also has the right amount of capacity. A nurse can manage plenty of heart failure patients from one computer dashboard, thus taking action when an emergency arises. A medical care center in Los Angeles called Cedars Sinai had linked the electronic medical records of 80,000 patients to the Apple Watch, which collects data regarding the heart activity. Continuous information allows cardiologists to review heart function in an entire month, instead of one visit to another.
Remote Detection
The sensors in the “smart bra” can directly supervise electrocardiograms from the heart, heart rate fluctuations, and wrong body postures. The smart bra will count on monitoring circadian temperature fluctuations in the breast and rise in vascularity from hemoglobin with the help of sound or light signals. Another such smart invention is “contact lens” that recognizes which glaucoma patients are possibly to get worse. Thus, scientists are using these wearables for more convenience and less privacy invasion for patients.
Remote Treatment
These devices can cease pain. A wrapper, Quell, attaches to the upper calf, employs electrical stimulation to activate a central nervous system response, and jam pain signals anywhere in the body. There are other wearables created to cease morning sickness and mitigate anxiety.
Wearable may treat or mitigate more severe illnesses in the upcoming times. IBM collaborates with Pfizer to create wearables to track the development of Parkinson’s disease and reduce symptoms by collecting rich information on motor function, cognition, sleep, and dyskinesia.
Tech Tattoo
An emerging category of epidermal electronics that gets wearable tech in vigorous contact with the skin is the --- Tech Tattoo. The temporary tech tattoos were initially introduced as a stick-on design on membranes that copies the skin’s machine-like flexibility. The modern version of these tattoos allows permanent etching with biosensing inks on the surface, turning it into a technology connection. Tech tattoos observe and alter color in response to bodily changes such as hydration levels, blood glucose levels, and surplus exposure to UV radiation.
Surgery
Google Glass has now paved its path into operation rooms. Many surgeons have leveraged internet-connected glasses to preload X-ray photos and CT scans, allowing them to concentrate on the patient without them turning around.
Stanford research says that when medical students performed dummy operations with Google glass, they did much better. Experts may use the glasses or such innovations in the future to tackle patients in an emergency.
Wrapping Up
This article has made it very clear how wearable tech is making its place in the medical field. It is growing to grow more without any doubt. Wearable tech in medical care will be vital for people with severe diseases, participants of clinical trials, and the seniors, who are required to get assessed regularly.