healthcare technology

Wearable technologies are set to transform health and wellness experiences and massively increase our expectations of health and wellness services.

This customer shift will transform the health and wellness industry as a whole, dragging regulation and governance kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Because there’s nothing quite like a vast, shouting mob (of wealthy voters) to drive change.

But first, a little background.

The smartphone IS the killer wearable

Most of us have a smartphone. Comscore reports 69% of US citizens and 62% of Canadians own one. Every day more of us are connecting them to our daily activities, homes, cars and communities.

The expanding universe of “wearable” sensors and peripherals are often simply data inputs for a smartphone-based experience. We expect to see few devices succeed without this symbiotic relationship. Those that try, usually offer an experience that’s inferior to simply pulling out your phone.

The major smartphone manufacturers are heavily invested in developing wearable “ecosystems” around their devices. Through close-range sensing technologies like BLE (iBeacon), NFC and RFID, plus increased availability of mobile web access through Wi-Fi hotspots and cheaper data plans, there’s every reason to expect this trend to continue.

The smartphone already is a wearable. And it’s the hub – a “life tracker” with a growing entourage of sensory peripherals on our bodies, in our homes and all around us.

We’ll share our lives in return for transformative wellness experiences

A paradigm shift is coming to the world of health and wellness. With the devices on our bodies and in our pockets gathering useful data about our movements, behaviours, preferences and wellbeing, more informed decisions become available.

So what happens next?1. The value we receive from sharing our wellness data will erode our privacy fears.2. Augmented reality will eventually become the new normal for healthcare professionals.3. Personal healthcare innovations will be swiftly subsumed into the major ecosystems. (Apple and Google)4. Healthcare providers need to embed digital capabilities, fast

- See more at: http://blog.thirdscreen.com.au/blog/2014/07/17/4-ways-wearables-will-transform-the-healthcare-experience/#sthash.18sChtZa.QuHsWyMK.dpuf

Considering the pace of technological growth in recent decades, the convergence of humans and machines seems a foregone conclusion. Yet, unlike most machines, the body is far too flexible and squishy for modern advanced materials. So it falls on researchers to develop new stretchable technologies that are easily manufactured and relatively inexpensive.

Recently, a biomedical engineering team at Purdue University developed a methodology to generate zigzag patterns out of conventional wire that can extend up to five times in length. The wires can be utilized as conductive interconnects between sensors, allowing for flexible networks or meshes to be embedded or wrapped around 3D objects.

“This compares to only a few percent for an ordinary metal connection,” said Professor Barak Ziaie, leading the research in the press release. “The structures are also highly robust, capable of withstanding thousands of repeated stretch-and-release cycles.”

Even more intriguing, the approach utilizes a standard sewing machine to fabricate the system.

Using water-soluble thread, the technique involves stitching wire in zigzags onto standard transparencies used with overhead projectors.

A commercially available elastomer called Ecoflex is poured over the sheet and allowed to solidify. The thread is dissolved with warm water, allowing the flexible polymer with the embedded wires to be separated from the transparencies.

To demonstrate how their approach could be used for medical devices, the team generated a sensor system that wraps around a urinary catheter balloon - as the balloon inflates, the sensor gauges the strain.

This flexible system can measure much greater expansion than conventional approaches that employ rigid metal films that permit only small percentages of stretching before breaking.

The findings, to be published in a forthcoming paper, were reported at the Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Workshop.

more at http://singularityhub.com/2014/06/10/simple-sewing-machine-has-high-tech-role-in-future-soft-machines/

Sustained engagement is emerging as the key challenge for companies developing wearable devices and complementary services. What these companies may not be aware of is the importance of habit formation, social motivation, and goal reinforcement. These three factors, drawn from behavioral science, contain the secrets to successful wearable products and related services that get used and deliver real value.

A failure to engage

A surprising percentage of devices in the market fail to achieve even short-term engagement for many users because they suffer from one or more fatal user experience flaws.

Product design teams typically work toward nine baseline criteria that must be met to drive initial adoption and use: selectability, design, out-of-box experience, fit/comfort, quality, user experience, integration ability, lifestyle compatibility, and overall utility.

Many current devices fail on one or more of these criteria by breaking, failing after a shower, pulling the hairs off your arm, running down quickly, or being a pain to sync with your smartphone. Sadly, the growing number value-added services designed to exploit the data these wearables provide and their open APIs also suffer from similar problems with user experience.

Beyond traditional design criteria

However, even if these criteria are satisfied, they are not sufficient to drive long-term use. Traditional product design criteria are only part of the key to developing successful wearable products and services.

Devices and services that help wearers change their habits also promote sustained behavior change and lead to long-term health. Behavioral science offers three other critical factors that can lead to the development of successful wearable products and related services.

Key factor #1: habit formation

Sustained engagement with a wearable device or complementary service depends on its ability to help the user form and stick with new habits. Psychologists define habits as automatic behaviors or routines that are triggered by situational cues, which are then followed by some form of reward. Habits have three key components: cues, routines, and rewards. The best wearable devices have the potential to make the process of habit formation more effective and efficient than ever before.

Key factor #2: social motivation

Sustained engagement beyond initial habit formation with a wearable device or complementary service depends on its ability to motivate users effectively. Social connections are a particularly powerful source of motivation that can be leveraged in many creative ways. In addition to using social connections to influence behavior, social media and networking sites can be exploited to alter habits for positive outcomes. This includes the communication of social norms through “postings” or “sharing” of thoughts, pictures, and comments with one another.

Key factor #3: goal reinforcement

To achieve sustained engagement, a user needs to build on these habits and social motivation to experience a feeling of progress toward defined goals. Research shows that achieving several smaller goals provides the positive momentum necessary for achieving bigger goals. Wearable products and services that help people experience continuous progress can do so, for example, through real-time updates that are powered by big data and insights. Facilitating personal progress in this way leads to improved health, user satisfaction, and long-term, sustained engagement.

Read more: http://medcitynews.com/2014/03/create-long-term-value-wearables-inspire-behavior-change/#ixzz2utQe7O1q

Wearables, devices used to sense data and process it into information, are generating quite the buzz in healthcare these days. But down the line, does that buzz come with a sting?

A newly published Apple patent application that details ways to improve a wrist-based pedometer could represent another piece of evidence pointing to an iWatch.

The application, “Wrist Pedometer Step Detection,” came out of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today. This is part of the standard patent process toward issuance. It details ways to improve step detection when someone is wearing a pedometer on a wrist.

In the patent application’s implementation, the pedometer might be able to “automatically determine that the pedometer is being worn on a user’s wrist.”

Pedometers, the application points out, are often attached to a user’s trunk – on the waist or pants or shirt pocket. A commonly used algorithm to measures steps, however, doesn’t work as well when the pedometer is on a wrist, because the arm’s movement can interfere with the measurement of acceleration.

No one has arms long enough to wear all of the activity-tracking wristbands currently on sale or awaiting release. These devices count your steps, measure your sleep and some even monitor your heart rate.

But do you know how this information immediately applies to your lifestyle, or what you should do with it?

The services behind these trackers need to invest in immediacy by providing useful information, ideally in real time, so we can optimize our wealth of data into action.

Everyone wants to be better, but nobody has a baseline for understanding themselves.

what use is the data without knowing in real time what you, individually, can do to change it?

I’d like to know whether I need to slow down. Am I pushing myself too hard?