Health+Wellness

Unlock the Power of Healthables

How Personalized Health Monitoring is Revolutionizing Wellness

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Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes

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The year was 1958, and a groundbreaking healthcare device hit the market: the Pacemaker. It became the first wearable healthcare technology. Volare, the top song of that year, meaning “to fly,” foreshadowed the soaring popularity and future potential of modern wearable technologies. Today, fitness trackers and smartwatches have become ubiquitous, continuously evolving with new functions to monitor and track key health metrics. The global wearable market, estimated at $55-72 billion in 2022, is projected to grow to nearly $200 billion by 2030. This dramatic growth is fueled by the increasing use and integration of smart wearables into mainstream healthcare as consumers take more control over their health and American confidence in the U.S. medical system is the lowest it’s been in a decade, according to Gallup. Companies such as Samsung, Apple, Fitbit, Oura, GARMIN, WHOOP, and others are throwing their hat in the ring of this growing technology consumer market. Let’s take a look at all of these wearable devices and the personal data they generate to understand their role in the health and wellness journey.

What Are Healthables?

Modern health devices aid in monitoring health by keeping track of items like movement, cholesterol levels, calories burnt, oxygen levels, heart rate, ECG, body temperature, blood pressure, glucose, and even neurological markers through sensors.

The form factor of health devices has moved well beyond just "wearables", to now include "ingestibles" and even "embeddables," or more simply, Healthables.

While most are familiar with a wearable, most likely a watch or a ring, there are new innovative devices arriving on a near weekly basis. A headband to monitor our mind and body connection to help us reach new levels of zen called Muse.¹ The Thync FeelZing² patch that improves mood and sleep with electricity instead of chemicals.

In the world of ingestibles, companies have created pills, such as the Envivo Bio Capscan³, to shed light on human gut activities and collect previously unmeasurable microbiome data.

In the future, Embeddables will introduce nanotechnology for tiny devices that doctors can easily inject directly into patients, promising accurate and automatic monitoring of blood sugar levels for individuals with diabetes. This could be a huge win for those with diabetes to be able to accurately monitor blood sugar levels reliably and automatically without daily blood draws.⁴

Regardless of their form factor, healthables all serve the common purpose of enabling consumers to collect and track real-time health information continuously. This data is invaluable for the patient wellness continuum, connecting various points in the healthcare ecosystem.

It’s All About the Data

It’s fascinating to witness the innovative methods of collecting continuous health information, but it is even more exciting to see how that intelligence, artificial or otherwise, can be used to improve health outcomes and even prevent catastrophic health events. AI is a potential game-changer, processing and analyzing the vast amounts of data generated by healthables and providing real-time insights. This allows for the opportunity of personalization to a degree never before experienced, but also a predictive element serving as an early warning system of likely health events, some of which could be life-threatening. Doctors tied into the healthable ecosystem can intervene, if necessary, and all the data can be recorded in one’s health records for any provider to access. This data integration is particularly beneficial for virtual health providers, offering a comprehensive view of patients’ health and specific circumstances.

Key use cases of AI leveraging healthable data include⁵:

• Remote Patient Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of patients’ wellness or chronic conditions, providing doctors with valuable data and alerts when there are possible red flags.
• Health and Fitness Tracking: Healthables that provide detailed insights into steps taken, exercise levels, sleep status, and dietary habits, and tools that help users in achieving their health and fitness goals.
• Disease Diagnosis: Finding key patterns in specific biomarkers may aid in an early diagnosis of disease.
• Medication Adherence: Sending timed reminders to take medication and monitoring a patient’s compliance with their prescribed treatment plans.
• Mental Health and Well-being: Providing options for stress management, mood tracking, and access to mental health resources.

Potential Concerns of Healthables

While the synergy of Healthables data and AI have enormous potential, many will be concerned with the level of privacy and security of sensitive health information, as well as future regulation of AI outputs. The accuracy of the information must be well tested and validated before key clinical decisions and treatments occur.

The Benefits of Healthables

Human health (and pet health for that matter!) is an every hour, every day journey throughout our lives. While medical tests and doctor visits offer a snapshot in time. Healthables provide continuous health information, empowering people to take charge of their own well-being. Moreover, they provide healthcare providers with comprehensive longitudinal insights into patients’ health. As an emerging industry, we are only just starting to see the innovation of new healthables and the power that the data intelligence can bring to bear for better and more affordable outcomes.

Take Action

WD Partners is excited to assist in the creative exploration, strategic assessment, and effective execution of programs and activations to integrate Healthables into the continuum of patient care. We are fully equipped to guide your teams through the process of developing and executing your own unique Data Wearables Integration Strategies. Our expertise extends from insights and strategy development to designing and creating innovative brands, experiences, and environments that we can scale.

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