This Week in Wearables: The Healthcare Opportunity in Wearables

This Week in Wearables is our weekly blog curating the best stories on wearables from around the web.

Internet of Things. Wearables Stimulates mHealth Market

via mHealth Intelligence, by Vera Gruessner

The medical field is changing drastically as new technologies are adopted and positioned as a means toward better quality of care, improved patient outcomes, and lower medical costs, more commonly known as the Triple Aim of Healthcare. Whether it is wearable devices, mobile health applications, the Internet of Things, or telehealth technology, the mHealth field is bringing forward significant changes for patient care and physician workflow.

Big pharma hands out Fitbits to collect better personal data

via ChicoER News, by Anna Edney and Caroline Chen

Pharmaceutical companies are enlisting Fitbits and other gadgets strapped to patients’ wrists, chests and skin as a way to bring drugs to market faster. What began as an aid for athletes and dieters to track their movements is quickly becoming a critical tool for medical researchers and drugmakers. By outfitting trial participants with wearables, companies are beginning to amass precise information and gather round-the-clock data in hopes of streamlining trials and better understanding whether a drug is working. Down the line, wearables also could help pharmaceutical makers prove to insurance companies that their treatments are effective, thus reducing health costs.

Apple to dominate smartwatch industry through 2019

via Fortune, by Jason Cipriani

The IDC’s latest report predicts Apple and Google will lead the smartwatch market over the next four years, with Apple coming out on top. While Apple AAPL -0.12% is intent on keeping its Apple Watch sales numbers to itself, the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts the company’s smartwatch will continue to dominate the wearable and smart wearable market. The latter device refers to wrist-worn gadgets that go beyond just counting steps or measuring fitness metrics, and include capabilities such as displaying alerts or running applications similar to those found on smartphones and tablets.

The future of wearables: report

via TNW News, by Andrew Levy

There have been a lot of changes to the mobile platform landscape in recent months. Innovative reimaginings of the way we connect with the world, new products and undeniably out-of-the-box features have made it an exciting time for consumers and the industry alike. But these big, bold changes have also created some uncertainty (and even anxiety) about where these moves are taking the market, especially the critical wearables segment.

Android Wear to rise as smart wearables surge

via CNET, by Jon Skillings

By the end of this decade, the battle between the Apple Watch and rival Android smartwatches will be a much tighter one. That shift will come as consumers get more familiar with smart wearables, still a very new type of gadget for most people, and as those devices surge ahead of more basic wearables such as fitness trackers, market researcher International Data Corp. said in a forecast released Monday.

Fresh from Google Glass partnership, VSP eyes high-tech wearables

via San Fransico Chronicle, by Thomas Lee

No one will mistake VSP Global for Google. But the 60-year-old eye insurance company from the Sacramento suburbs has demonstrated a Google-esque ability to pursue opportunities beyond its core business. VSP not only partnered with the search giant on Google Glass, but is now using that experience to develop prescription glasses loaded with sensors to track consumer health.