Brain Computer Interfaces & connected medical devices

IDC’s latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker said global shipments will reach 110 million units in 2016 with vendors taking advantage of increased consumer awareness. Wearables will experience double-digit growth throughout the next five years and there will be 237.1 million devices shipped in 2020, IDC said.

After several years in development, the MC10 BioStampRC went on sale this week. It’s a waterproof, band-aid-like sticker loaded with some of the most sophisticated tracking sensors ever created. It provides real-time access to a person’s vital signs and activity, in an entirely unobtrusive way.

Today’s health and/or fitness trackers are but a prelude to much more interesting devices that will go beyond step counting and heart rate monitoring. The fitness wearables commercially available today are nothing more than fancy electronic pedometers that have been around for roughly 30 years, with the added pizazz of wireless connectivity to send data to the cloud. Nice features for sure, but they don’t add much in the way of medical usefulness. Furthermore, while there are many FDA-approved medical devices on the market today, such as insulin monitors and blood pressure monitors, these items perform a single function and most could hardly be described as “wearable”. Done right, next generation medical wearables might just prove to be the key catalyst for revolutionizing how healthcare is delivered.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has hit many industries, government, and certainly the lives of consumers. We now have the ability to remotely turn our appliances on or off, and to monitor what goes on in our homes when we are away. Industries can detect machinery issues and repair them remotely. Smart cities are being planned which will provide for everything from easing traffic to controlling lighting, and even to melt our streets when snow and ice threaten transportation and public safety. Another area in which IoT has amazing possibilities is health care.

The internet isn’t that old if you really think about it. We've been working on it for decades but so far as public use, it's only been a short span of about 20 years. In 1974, the TCIP/IP structure that we know today had it’s birth. It was not until ten years later that the first domain name system or DNS was introduced. The first website actually came online in 1991. The internet that was proposed just a scant two years earlier came crashing into our mainstream world. It was a technological awakening that had been a long time coming.

It can be hard to remember to take your medicine, whether you're on fluoxetine or Flintstones vitamins. A new smart device wants to use technology to help you keep up with your meds.

Wearables are on track to become a new channel for how patients and healthcare providers interact. They offer patients the ability to be more engaged with their healthcare plan and allow for communication of healthcare information remotely.