Flexibility is the New Watchword in Wearable Healthcare Technology
Before the coronavirus pandemic struck the better part of the world, healthcare was already trending towards less frequent in-patient doctor visits and more video appointments and remote treatment options. Now that the healthcare industry has been pushed even further in that direction out of necessity, that trend could start to rapidly accelerate. Wearable technologies are an area of potential growth, as remote health monitors could do the work of a lot of routine medical checkups as well as help with contact tracing in the event of future pandemics. The miniaturization of wearable tech has enabled the industry to make significant inroads into the healthcare market, but the usefulness of wearable tech in the field is still somewhat constrained by the structural rigidity of even the smallest wearable devices. New developments in manufacturing have led to the advent of “flexible electronics,” devices that can be folded and stretched – or even bent to fit the contours of the human body. Samsung, Motorola and Huawei all make foldable cell phones with flexible displays that are currently on the market. Could flexible electronics be the next big thing in wearable healthcare technology?
A new report from market research firm IDTechEX seems to think it can. According to the report, healthcare devices featuring flexible electronics will account for over 8 billion dollars in revenue by 2030. One major benefit of flexible or printed devices is they’re less obtrusive than their bulkier, hard shelled counterparts – patients have historically resisted wearing medical devices for long-term monitoring because of just how ungainly they are. Devices that can be fitted by a medical professional to stay in place while the patient goes about his or her day, while minimizing the patient’s discomfort, could be the answer to the question of how to deploy wearable health monitors on a large scale. The healthcare industry refers to flexible devices as “fit and forget” technology.
Examples of flexible wearable devices already being implemented by healthcare providers include skin patches that can monitor a patient’s cardiovascular system and blood sugar levels, as well as monitoring body temperature and range of motion. A skin patch applied to the shoulder that can monitor a patient’s range of motion in that shoulder can be useful for people recovering from torn rotator cuffs or other structural damage. Smart clothing and “e-textiles” are also transitioning from sports and fitness into healthcare, with biometric sensors being woven into specially designed apparel. Printed electronic test strips like the kind used to take glucose levels are still a big part of the flexible healthcare technology, maintaining a billion-dollar market share despite new technologies for continuous glucose monitoring being developed as we speak.
Flexible healthcare technology still has a long way to go, but the potential is limitless. Imagine soft casts that can monitor how a broken arm or leg is healing in real time, or a skin patch that can monitor anxiety and stress levels and in the body and alert an app on your phone to make suggestions as to how you can calm yourself down. In the midst of a coronavirus-related lockdown, it’s easy to see how wearable, non-intrusive heartrate and temperature monitors could help contain viral outbreaks and prevent the spread of the disease. Flexible healthcare technology is definitely a sector that bears monitoring, and we’ll revisit it in future blogs to see how the market is progressing.