Technology has become a part of our everyday lives. That device we call "mobile phone" rarely leaves our side. Everywhere we go, we take pictures, record videos and sound. These are just some of the many functions our phones can perform. We can set alarm, reminder, text and a lot more.
Smart phones are no longer a new story. Almost everyone has a smartphone. We are therefore moving to the newer stuff, "wearable devices".
Wearable technology or wearables are devices that can be comfortably worn on the body. It could be an implant or an accessory. They are smart electronic devices.
These wearables can effectively take your blood pressure, help you lose weight and a lot more. Patients can easily monitor their health at home. This can help save money and reduce unnecessary visits to the hospital. Indeed, there are pacemakers for patients suffering from heart diseases that can remotely send data to health centres. This makes it possible for a patient's health to be monitored from a distance as well as alert patients if something is wrong.
Wearable technology is now all over the place and is widely touted by Forbes as the future of consumer electronics.
" The wearable technology market grew 29℅ in 2016, with 101.9 million units sold"
International Data Corporation (IDC)
The organization also projects that the wearable market will reach more than 213billion units sold to consumers by 2020.
Wearable devices can collect data on the following:
√ Sleep: sleep is essential for both physical and mental well being. Adequate sleep is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle. Sleep can help lower blood pressure, boost the body's immune system and reduces signs of aging. Also, there is a link between insufficient sleep and heart problems.
Wearables such as Fitbit ionic can monitor your sleep. Fitbit ionic can be comfortably worn on the wrist. It is infact a smartwatch. It has constant heart monitoring and it provides a detailed breakdown of your sleep in stages.
From the smartwatch, you can easily know if you are running on a sleep deficit.
Fitbit Alta HR is another sleep tracker which is very similar to the fitbit ionic except it is smaller and cheaper. It performs the same function as the more expensive model as far as sleep tracking is concerned.
√ Stress levels: I've written a post about stress and its effects on our health (You can check my blog for the post if you are interested. Stress is one of the biggest health risks and it predisposes to many diseases.
Above is the Apple Watch Series 3, a smartwatch that can detect stress levels by measuring your hear rate. It also tells you when to stop and take a deep breath.
√ Calories burned: Wearables can help you keep track of the amount of calories you are burning by measuring your weight. Obesity might lead to type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke , heart diseases even stroke. It is therefore important to keep an optimum weight as being too skinny may lead to low immunity as well as fertility issues. There are a lot of trackers that can count the number if steps you take per day, distance that you worked and amount of calories burned. The tracker then set a weight losing regimen for you.
Vivofit2
√ Blood pressure: It is no secret that hypertension is one of the most chronic conditions in the world today. There are a number of wearables that can effectively measure your heart rate and blood pressure. High blood pressure causes heart disease and stroke.
PROS of Wearable Tech
√ Monitoring patients from a distance: Patients can be monitored from a distance by means of a wearable devices implanted or placed on their body. There are patients that are not sick enough to be admitted but are still at risk. Wearable tech can be used to monitor them in their homes. Also wearable tech can be used to monitor patients after a surgery.
√ Anticipatory/Proactive healthcare : People go to the hospital when they are sick. Wearable tech can detect an illness in its early stage so that quick action can be taken. Wearable tech can also be used to monitor patients that are prone to a couple of health problems so that these health problems can be easily diagnosed and quick action taken before they become a problem.
√ Multifunctional: Wearable tech have different functions. The same wearable tech can monitor your sleeping pattern, measure your heart rate, your body temperature and even your body weight. This way, you can keep track of more than one aspect of your health.
CONS of Wearable Tech
√ Price : Wearable tech may seem cool and all but they are expensive to most consumers. From almost $300 dollars for Fitbit ionic , $329 dollars to Apple Watch Series 3 and so on. For now, the idea of wearable tech may seem like a luxury to most people instead of a neccessity.
√ Battery: Imagine putting on your smartwatch at night to track your sleep only to wake up the next morning to discover the battery went flat in the middle of the night. Oops! 😣. Majority of the wearables batteries out there do not last long enough and needs to be charged almost on a daily basis.
√ Accuracy of data collected: The sensing capabilities of wearables are improving and manufacturers are striving to make wearables collect accurate data. However, there are still a number of wearables out there that do not collect accurate data. There are some sleep trackers that assume you are sleeping even when you are just lying down. Although there are newer models that have fixed that.
√ Some wearable are not stand alone : There are some wearables that need to be connected to an app on your smartphone or tablet.
CONCLUSION
A wearable will only show you data so that you can take appropriate action. Despite the cons of it, wearable tech is an exciting concepts. It will take some time for it to become widely used and accepted but its future is very bright.
REFERENCES
Humanvox
Neongoldfish
Wikipedia
NINIHORLAH (Knower Of Nothing)
The future of healthcare sounds about right.
Wearable items are the previous step towards having those same sensors inside our own body.
When Apple introduced their Apple Watch they gave a lot of importance towards health applications.
I share your views too!
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