Wearables, including health trackers and remote patient monitoring devices, are set to become “must-haves” in the delivery of healthcare, with an annual spend on these devices reaching an estimated $20 billion by 2023, according to new research.
The exploration into mobile devices, and more broadly digital health, conducted by Juniper Research, also noted that assistive “hearables,” or connected hearing aids made available via healthcare providers, as well as directly to customers at varying price models, will mean this sector generates revenues of over $40 billion by 2022. Together, healthcare spending in the wearables market is projected to reach $60 billion by 2023, according to the report.
The research found that adoption of healthcare wearables will be driven by improvements in remote patient monitoring technology, in addition to increased adoption by medical institutions. Juniper forecasts that 5 million individuals will be remotely monitored by healthcare providers by 2023.
The research also forecasts that the advanced ability of AI (artificial intelligence)-enabled software analytics to proactively identify individuals at risk of their condition worsening will witness increased confidence among medical practitioners and regulators with regard to sensor accuracy.
As wearables become part of patients’ treatment plans, manufacturers will seek to adjust their business models and generate revenues from devices being monitored. An example of this would be selling data produced by the devices to insurance providers, the researchers noted. Juniper forecasts that service revenues of this nature will reach $855 million by 2023.
However, data privacy and consent will continue to be a significant barrier. Improving healthcare systems, such as using AI-enabled software analytics, is contingent on patient data being anonymized. Some insurance providers are changing the dynamics; in order to be covered, they require a data feed from the policyholder’s device, the researchers explained.
Research author Michael Larner stated, “It is vital that patients are made aware of how their personal data will be used. If not, making wearables a ‘must-have’ to provide personalized care or receive medical insurance risks a backlash from patients and heightened regulatory scrutiny; stalling the effectiveness of remote monitoring.”
To this end, in a recent study published in Health Affairs, researchers looked at new digital health solutions—both consumer-facing and provider-facing—and concluded that while there is real collective potential in these solutions to address significant healthcare challenges, to date, there simply have not been studies that evaluated effectiveness in terms of reducing cost or improving access to care. Furthermore, clinical effectiveness studies with a high level of evidence were uncommon, according to this research.
