GlobalData WearableDevicesandmHealth 170119 PDF
GlobalData WearableDevicesandmHealth 170119 PDF
Although currently limited, the potential for data trends in patients over extended
periods of time is driving growth and investment into wearable devices
“If a patient is asymptomatic in clinic but “If I have a patient with atrial fibrillation
clearly has something wrong, right now we who is on medication, if they can track
do very invasive things, maybe give them a their heart rate while exercising, I can see
Holter monitor for a few days, implanting if the medication keeps their heart rate in
something under the skin, so for patients like control and doesn’t spike very fast. That
this, a wearable device would be very helpful can be done with today’s apps, but it is a
if it could accurately measure heart rhythms. pretty limited application.”
If we could have data for a month or two - Key Opinion Leader
months and we could get a better idea if
somebody is having arrhythmias. But
that would only be for a very small “Some data we ask for is tracking
patient group.” weight and blood pressure, but
- Key Opinion Leader that is more data reporting than
automatically from a device.”
- Key Opinion Leader
Until smartwatches sell themselves on their “The number of people who are
healthcare benefits, the market potential is smaller able to afford these high price
products by themselves for
than it could be comfort level is very low… If you
• The potential market for pure fitness use is limited. were to develop these [devices]
Fitbit published lower growth in 2017 than 2016, which and the patients were to pay for
it themselves then it will be a
could be due to slowing interest in simple fitness bands.
very small market, as many
Consumers are demanding more from smartwatches, so patients will not be able to pay
manufacturers must demonstrate their additional value for it. The insurance companies
beyond their fitness benefits. Additionally, the potential will then look at it and say ‘why
market size for fitness is smaller than for healthcare. should we pay for it when they
can get these tests in clinic’, and
• High cost of smartwatches is a barrier to consumers. won’t offer it.”
The wearables market is reliant on consumer purchases. - Key Opinion Leader
Price is a key value driver for consumers and is one of the
leading factors influencing purchase. As a result, the high
cost of most wearables, typically over $150, is a barrier to
a large portion of the population. Unless prices decrease
or insurance companies offer wearable devices, these
consumers will not be able to afford smartwatches.
The data currently produced by smartwatches are not “Today, just getting somebody’s
clinically actionable heart rate data is not usually
actionable… we don’t actually
• Smartwatches currently have limited clinical use use it clinically. Physical activity,
Although many can see the potential benefits of wearable sure, if they’re not exercising it
devices that are able to monitor patients and even aid remote may be a sign that they are
diagnosis, the technology is currently not at a level that is getting more congested and
useful in all cases. Patients are keen to take data to physicians maybe they’ll get sick, but it’s
not current practice that we
from their wearables, but currently there is very little clinical automatically get that data and
value to the data collected. In order to reach the full market act on it.”
potential of wearables, further research into clinical utility is - Key Opinion Leader
required in order to fully break into the medical space. If
smartwatches were able to provide clinically actionable data, “Yes we do get [wearables] data
physicians may begin to encourage their use. but I truly don’t know what to do
with it today.”
- Key Opinion Leader
Improvements are required to reach market potential “One issue is what is the
• Data is perceived to be of poor quality. fidelity of the data, how
reliable is it as opposed to the
Although the reliability of data provided by wearables has more invasive assessment
improved even in the last two years, there is still a that we are used to doing. I
perception among both physicians and consumers of poor assume if the FDA is
data quality. One strategy to circumvent this is by approving these devices they
registering the device with the FDA as a medical device, as have looked into it and this
has been done by Philips. Alternatively, companies can data is pretty reliable, so the
publish more data from studies demonstrating the issue moves from reliability to
what to do with it clinically.”
accuracy and reliability of their data. - Key Opinion Leader
• Healthcare technology is not able to progress at the
typical speed of other technologies.
The end goal of some vendors is the ability to market
wearables with clinical value. However, FDA approvals are
often lengthy and could undermine the value of new
technology if vendors must wait a year for approval before
entering market. Apple is reported to have approached the
FDA, possibly to arrange special treatment of the Apple
Watch in the approval process.
monitor. 6
Although physicians have mixed opinions
4
about the clinical utility of heart rate data, it
is a common feature of wearable devices. 2
Apple and Stanford University’s School of Medicine have launched the Apple
Heart Study to investigate the possibility of monitoring patients with atrial
fibrillation
• Detection and monitoring of atrial fibrillation is a key market for heart rate monitors.
Many device manufacturers are aiming to provide clinically actionable data from their
wearables, ideally using existing sensors. Although clinicians have responded
skeptically to the utility of heart rate data provided by wearables, monitoring of
irregular heartbeats such as in atrial fibrillation has been raised by key opinion leaders
as a potential benefit of wearable devices. Currently, if atrial fibrillation is suspected a
patient will undergo an ECG during a clinic visit. If a patient is asymptomatic during this
visit they may be fitted with a Holter monitor, typically for 24–48 hours.
• The Apple Heart Study is likely to result in new functionality for the next-generation
Apple Watch.
The most recent Apple Watch contains an improved heart-rate monitoring system,
including warning users if their heart rate spikes when not exercising. The Apple Heart
Study will be expanding on this feature, using data from the Apple Watch to analyze
arrhythmias, likely with a view to diagnosis or monitoring, particularly as the company
has been working closely with the FDA throughout this endeavor.
In a new age of patient engagement, mobile apps aim to “Where these [wearable]
empower diabetes patients devices can really make an
impact is in chronic diseases.
• Wrist-worn wearables may provide an easier method of You see it starting with diabetes,
diabetes management. like Medtronic and Fitbit’s
An early study on the merits of self-management applications on partnership… More and more
smartwatches found that wrist-worn wearables made the patients are going to be using
recording of activity levels, glucose levels and other health smartwatches and apps to
measurement inputs easier for patients (Årsand et al., 2015). manage chronic diseases.”
- Key Opinion Leader
Since publication, diabetes management apps have become
abundant on Apple, Android, and smartwatch platforms,
typically including tracking and visualization of blood glucose,
insulin, food, and exercise.
• Apps can connect remote patients with physicians.
Livongo is a care management platform for diabetes being used
by Alaska’s largest primary care group, to enable patients to
access clinician support and guidance between visits and
providing clinicians real-time access to patient data (Wicklund,
2017). This care model provides support for remote patients
without requiring travel, however reimbursement remains a
barrier to adoption.
neurological diseases.
In 2017, approximately a third of the total
Apple’s ResearchKit enables researchers to enroll patients and conduct studies via
iPhones, while the CareKit provides a software framework for apps to manage
disease
• Researchers are able to develop apps to reach large cohorts of patients for studies.
Current measures of neurological health are often based on sporadic visits to clinicians,
typically every 4–6 months for a Parkinson’s patient. One app, mPower, aimed to establish
baseline variability in real-world scenarios for patients with Parkinson’s, and was able to
recruit 9,520 participants to the study (Bot et al., 2016). Although consistent use of the app
was rare, this demonstrates the powerful role mobile apps could play in clinical trials and
studies.
• People with epilepsy track symptoms and notify carers of a seizure using Apple Watch.
Researchers are using the Apple Watch to track the onset and duration of seizures in real
time, creating a correlation between episode history and medication, in an effort to
eventually predict when seizures may occur. Participants launch the EpiWatch app when they
sense an impending seizure, which triggers the accelerometer and heart rate sensors and
automatically sends an alert to a designated family member or caregiver. These applications
enable researchers to utilize the vast power of big data in healthcare to increase our
understanding of neurological disease, which GlobalData expects to play a large role in future
clinical research.
Although many different types of healthcare apps have “People want to be more
been developed, the most popular focus on informed about their health…
empowering consumers to take control of their health society is getting more aware
of the concept of health being
• Calorie counters and activity trackers are consistently some healthy and not just the
of the most downloaded healthcare apps in the US. absence of disease. I can see
These applications bridge the gap between consumer wearables and apps playing a
products and clinically useful data. Apps that integrate role there already. I see
wearables being a health
tracking of calorie intake, exercise levels, weight, blood
follow-up tool rather than a
pressure, and others are becoming more popular as disease follow-up tool.”
consumers become more focused on maintaining their - Key Opinion Leader
health. Physicians have stated that the most useful
information clinically is often simply weight and blood
pressure recorded on a regular basis. As a result, GlobalData
expects these tracking applications will maintain their
popularity with consumers, and will drive more physicians to
use data from wearable devices and apps.
Wearable devices have the ability to increase granularity “Growth in these [wearable]
of clinical trial data devices will be at least in part
from their use in clinical trials.
• Clinical trials currently rely on isolated snapshots of a Clearly at some point the
patient’s health throughout the trial period. regulatory agencies will be
Use of wearable devices provides researchers with real-world, able assess the efficacy of all
continuous measurements as trial subjects follow their daily these new drugs and
routines. Not all trials will benefit from the data provided by interventions not just by how
current sensors, however for some trials heart rate tracking well somebody can walk after
six months but using data
would provide key insights, for example if a new drug may gathered from the whole trial
potentially affect cardiovascular function. period.”
• The FDA is increasing focus on personalized healthcare in - Key Opinion Leader
products and clinical trials.
As trials become more patient-centric, GlobalData expects use
of wearable technologies for remote patient monitoring to
become more common in clinical trials. The ability to collect
more data on individual subjects will inevitably increase use of
wearables as non-invasive sensor technology improves.
“All of these data become more attractive if there is “If they bring this data into clinic I don’t
actionable intervention that is linked to it. This is not have any additional use for it outside of
to dis[respect] the data, because there are two talking to the patient about their
applications; one is to understand the physiology and symptoms. Maybe if it could track
to research how many patients have certain medication compliance or something
symptoms, but that is just for research; and two, similar, but at the moment with just heart
using these data to assess the efficacy of therapy. rate there’s not a lot of use.”
None of these things are ready for clinical use today.” - Key Opinion Leader
- Key Opinion Leader
“If there are transcutaneous sensors that can figure out your K level or
glucose level and is automatically sent to your watch, that would
definitely hold promise for clinical treatment, but that’s not what
today’s watches are giving you... Even if they did, we have blood tests
today, and we can get glucose levels and K levels so it’s not like we
don’t have a solution today, so the solution you’re coming up with to
the problem is ease, not that we don’t currently get the data.”
- Key Opinion Leader
Reliable data must be provided by wearables before “We have approached the FDA
physicians are able to use it clinically several times for their
perspective… if you can actually
• Physicians require guidance on how to use data collected get a lot of information on a
from wearable devices. day-to-day basis should we
Currently, most wearables are not classified as medical accept it? I don’t think we’re
devices, and thus are not regulated as rigorously as there, I think the world is moving
in that direction but [wearables]
physicians are accustomed to. As a result, many physicians need a lot of validation and
will be reluctant to use data from wearable devices due to understanding of what you are
the lack of data validation and guidance from regulators as getting from these data.”
to how to use this information. More input from regulators - Key Opinion Leader
is required to overcome this hurdle to using this data.
• Few reliable sensors are located off the wrist.
While there are some products available, the majority of
wearable devices sold are wrist-worn. As miniaturization of
technology continues, manufacturers will be able to
produce smaller wearable devices that can connect to a
smartphone or computer to track and monitor patients.
Wearable devices can not yet interact directly “Healthcare providers can’t make the
• Data interconnectivity is vital to enable most of data from wearable devices until
they can connect with existing healthcare
widespread use of data from wearable devices. infrastructure. It needs to be easy to
Currently, there is no digital standard for include data from wearables into an
interoperability between wearable devices. As a electronic medical record.”
result, it is difficult to include data collected from - Key Opinion Leader
wearable devices into existing patient notes,
particularly as many device manufacturers prefer “Many device makers now offer
connectivity but when you look under the
to hold the data in proprietary apps and cloud
hood it is a proprietary system. They offer
services. This poses a problem for the uptake of an app, then they offer a private cloud
wearable devices in a healthcare setting, as service. Everybody wants to keep their
physicians will not be able to utilize the data customers within their own walled garden
collected. In Europe, there has been pressure which creates a problem when the
from some governments, for example in the healthcare system wants to access that
Netherlands, for device manufacturers to data.”
-Key Opinion Leader
conform to data sharing standards. This is a trend
GlobalData expects to continue as wearable
devices become more widely adopted for
healthcare.
Estimated
Product Name Company Stage Application
launch date
BioDatix WristBand HealthDatix Clinical January, 2019 Remote Patient Monitoring
Cortrium C3 Device Cortrium ApS In Approval Process June, 2018 Vital Signs Monitoring
eMotion Fetal
TinyKicks Inc In Approval Process June, 2018 Fetal Activity Monitoring
Activity Monitor
Estimated
Product Name Company Stage Application
launch date
Everion Biovotion AG In Approval Process June, 2018 Vital Signs Monitoring
Verily Life
Google Wristband Clinical August, 2019 Vital Signs Monitoring
Sciences LLC
Remote Patient Monitoring for
HDWear BioSensics LLC Clinical October, 2020
Huntington’s Disease
iBeat Heart –
Heart Rate Monitoring; Remote
monitoring iBeat Inc In Approval Process June, 2018
Patient Monitoring
smartwatch
ID-Cap System etectRx Inc Clinical January, 2020 Medication Adherence Monitoring
MICROS Physiological
Vivonics, Inc. Clinical January, 2019 Patient Monitoring
Sensor
Mobile Wireless Biotricity
Clinical July, 2020 Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring
Fetal HRV Monitor Medical Inc.
PAMSys BioSensics LLC Clinical July, 2019 Remote Patient Monitoring
Reveal Awake Labs Inc In Approval Process June, 2018 Patient Monitoring for Anxiety
University of
Skin-Like Device Clinical July, 2018 Remote Patient Monitoring
Illinois
Estimated
Product Name Company Stage Application
launch date
North Carolina Vital Signs Monitoring; Diagnosis
Sleepi-Band Clinical January, 2019
State University Of Sleep Disorders
Upper-Limb Frailty Remote Patient Monitoring for
BioSensics LLC Clinical May, 2019
Meter Trauma
Vitaliti Wearable Patient Monitoring for
Cloud DX Inc. Clinical January, 2020
Health Monitor Huntington’s Disease
Seoul National
Wearable Heart Rate December, Remote Patient Monitoring; Heart
University Clinical
Monitoring Device 2019 Rate Monitoring
Hospital
Wearable Sensor
Remote Patient Monitoring for
Patch - Parkinson's MC10 Inc Clinical January, 2021
Parkinson’s Disease
Disease
University of
Wearable Sweat February,
California Clinical Remote Patient Monitoring
Sensor 2019
Berkeley
The FDA currently does not classify most wearable devices as medical devices
• The Philips Health Watch is the only smartwatch to be classified as a medical device
Although companies are beginning to integrate apps designed for healthcare, the
smartwatches themselves are not regulated as medical. Manufacturers are beginning
to move towards functioning as a medical device, such as Apple seeking to detect atrial
fibrillation. As this is a diagnosis, it will require some form of FDA regulation.
• The FDA clarified the criteria for medical software in the 21st Century Cures Act,
enacted in 2016 (Sec. 3060 - Clarifying medical software regulation)
In terms of consumer products, software that is for “maintaining or encouraging a
healthy lifestyle and is unrelated to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention, or
treatment of a disease condition” is not considered a medical device. Similarly,
software for administrative support of healthcare, viewing electronic medical records,
storing test results, or other non-clinical functions are not considered to be medical
devices.
• Medical apps will be regulated using a tailored risk-based approach
Apps that are “intended to be used as an accessory to a regulated medical device, or
transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device” will be regulated in this
way. Iterative changes such as app updates will not require re-evaluation.
• Årsand E, et al. (2015). Performance of the First Combined Smartwatch and Smartphone
Diabetes Diary Application Study. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology; 9(3): 556–563.
• Barrett PM, et al. (2014). Comparison of 24 Hour Holter Monitoring Versus 14 Day Novel
Adhesive Patch Electrocardiographic Monitoring. American Journal of Medicine; 127: 95.e11-
95.e17
• Casilari E, & Oviedo-Jiménez M, (2015). Automatic Fall Detection System Based on the
Combined Use of a Smartphone and a Smartwatch. PLoS ONE; 10(11): e0140929
• CDC, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (2015) Available from:
https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/. [Accessed November 6, 2017]
• Chaudhuri S, et al. (2015). Real World Accuracy and Use of a Wearable Fall Detection Device
by Older Adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; 63(11): 2415–2416.
• Fryar CD, et al. (2012). Prevalence of Uncontrolled Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease:
United States, 1999–2010. NCHS Data Brief; No. 103
• Jariwala S, et al. (2013). The association between asthma-related emergency department
visits and pollen and mold spore concentrations in the Bronx, 2001–2008. Journal of Asthma;
51:1
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