April 8, 2024
The quick technological advancement has profoundly affected a multitude of sectors, including healthcare. One such impact can be seen in wearable tech, which has completely changed the game for real-time health tracking and management. This article takes a look at just a few of the many applications and benefits of wearable tech in healthcare, and how this is shaping the future of healthcare.
Wearable tech has significantly improved patient monitoring. This technology makes it possible to obtain information about various health parameters in real-time. This allows early detection of health issues as the devices constantly track and provide continuous data based on the indicators & metrics.
Take a smartwatch or fitness band that measures heart rate, and blood pressure, to get continuous data for early detection of any health problem of the user, an example of it is the ECG feature in the latest Apple Watch can detect an irregular heart rhythm and maybe one-day atrial fibrillation - a leading cause of stroke. With real-time monitoring, it becomes easier to ensure prompt action to prevent any complications and improve our turn of events.
Even for those with chronic conditions, a wearable enables them to look after their health with more convenience. Additionally, wearable devices for asthma can control air quality while monitoring symptoms to help patients avoid triggers and regularly manage their encounters with respiratory issues.
Also by providing patients with continuous data, these devices empower patients to become their health managers while providing them with the key to better health rather than getting them into a hospital and undergoing a series of procedures that could be easily managed by wearable devices.
With wearables now playing such fundamental roles in championing fitness and preventive health, companies developing fitness trackers like Fitbit and Garmin encourage physical activity by trying to prompt users to work out by tracking steps, calories burnt, and types of activities. There are also some other features like goal setting, progress tracking, etc. which people do like and feel motivated to keep setting new and bigger goals to lead a healthy life.
These wearables give them the right direction with personalised feedback to understand the impact of their behaviour or their habits on health which makes sure that you take steps towards preventive care rather than curative care. This prevalence of lifestyle diseases like Obesity, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular conditions indicates that the switch towards preventive health is necessary in today's day and age.
The COVID-19 pandemic has bolstered the use of telehealth and remote tool applications for telemedicine which makes wearable technology a chief player. Wearables supply healthcare providers with the capability to observe important bodily health metrics from afar and have limited the number of face-to-face appointments that patients need to make, this is significantly advantageous for people who have underlying health problems so visiting hospitals is difficult for them. Many laboratories such as pbmc laboratory, are also working to try and incorporate this.
In conclusion, total wearable tech has truly transformed the healthcare sector and the future seems very promising with wearables being utilised even more in healthcare with advanced sensors, AI, and data analytics to have more efficient and diverse health monitoring facilities - to maybe even preempt diseases with the help of an advanced biomarker testing system.
