Published Date: 30th Jan 2023
Written By: Sagar Sharma
Wearable Medical Devices
Wearable medical devices are devices that can be worn on the body to monitor and track various aspects of health and fitness. These devices can range from simple pedometers and heart rate monitors to more and more advanced devices that track sleep patterns, blood pressure, and even glucose levels. One of the biggest advantages of wearable medical devices is their convenience. Many of these devices can be worn throughout the day and night, allowing for continuous monitoring of a person's health. This can be especially useful for individuals with chronic conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease, as it allows them to track their symptoms and make adjustments to their treatment plan as needed.
Wearable medical devices have ability to provide real-time data. This can be especially helpful for individuals who are trying to make lifestyle changes, such as increasing their physical activity or improving their sleep habits. By being able to see their progress in real-time, they can make adjustments as needed and stay motivated to reach their goals. However, there are also some potential downsides to these devices. One concerns is privacy and security. As these devices collect personal health information, it's important to ensure that this data is protected from un-authorized access. Additionally, some experts have also raised concerns about the accuracy of data collected. As well as the potential risks for "data overload", where the individuals become overwhelmed by the amount of information they are receiving.
How does they work?
Wearable medical devices use sensors to collect data from the wearer's body. For example, a wearable heart monitor may use electrocardiogram(ECG) sensor to track the electrical signals of the heart. The collected data is then processes by the algorithms built inside the device. This processing helps to clean and interpret the data, making it more useful for further analysis. The processed data is then communicated to other devices such as smartphones,laptops, or cloud-based servers. This communication is usually done wirelessely using technologies such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
The received data is then analyzed to extract useful informations. This analysis can be performed by the device itself, or it can be performed by third-patry software. Based on the analysis of the data, the device can provide feedback to the wearer in the form of alerts, notifications, or visualizations. This feedback can help the wearer make informed decisions about their health and wellness. Wearable medical devices can also share the collected data with the healthcare providers, allowing them to monitor the health of their patients remotely. This can help providers make more informed treatment decisions and improve health results.
Uses of Wearable Medical Devices
Wearable medical devices have a variety of potential uses in the heathcare system, including:
- Monitoring chronic conditions: Wearable medical devices can be used to continiously monitor chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart diseases, and sleep apnea. This can allow individuals to track their symptoms and make adjustments to their treatment plan as needed.
- Improving medication adherence: Wearable devices can remind individuals to take their medication and also helps to track that. This can be especically helpful for individuals who have difficulty to remember to take their medicines.
- Remote patient monitoring: Wearable devices can be used to monitor patients remotely, allowing healthcare providers to keep track of their patients health without the need for in-person visits. This can be especially useful for individuals who live in remote areas or have mobility issues.
- Clinical trials: Wearable devices can be used to collect data in clinical trials, providing researchers with more accurate and detailed information about the effectiveness of new treatments.
- Rehabilitation: Wearable devices can be used to track progress during rehabilitation and physical therapy, allowing healthcare providers to adjust treatment plans as needed.
- Preventive care: Wearable devices can be used to track physical activity and sleep patterns, helping individuals make lifestyle changes that can prevent chronic conditions from developing.
Advantages of Wearable Medical Devices
Although Wearable medical devices have so many advantages and among them some are listed below:
- Convenience: Wearable devices can be worn continuously, allowing for constant monitoring of a patient's health.
- Improved patient engagement: Wearable devices can help patients stay more engaged in their own health and wellness.
Disadvantages of Wearable Medical Devices
Every materials have their good and bad part. So, Some of the disadvantages of Wearable medical devices are listed below:
- Limited accuracy: Some wearable devices may not be as accurate as traditional medical devices. Technologies also has some flaws they can’t work 100% efficiently. So, by using those technological devices sometimes the mathematics can be upside down.
- Privacy concerns: Wearable devices collect and store sensitive personal health information, which can be vulnerable to hacking or data breaches. In this modern area, everything was cloud based and even the patients details were stored in cloud memory.
- Cost: Wearable devices can be expensive, and may not be covered by insurance. And even in this developing world all people are not in that reach to use those Hi-Fi medical devices. For, everyone's reach the price must be kept low and this will only get happen when those technological companies where happy to make their business in loss.
- Limited battery life: Wearable devices often have limited battery life, which can be inconvenient for patients. Using battery operated devices may cause you problem sometimes because it needs to be charged regularly.
- Limited functionality: Sometimes we get an unusual signs for diseases and some wearable devices may not be able to detect certain conditions or symptoms.
Conclusion
Demand for medical and consumer wearables will no doubt increase in the coming future times. This is very friendly and offers many opportunities to improve the healthcare environment. However, you must need a reliable technology partner to provide portable software development services to be successful in this technological area. In general, wearable medical devices have the potential to improve the quality of patients care, but it is also important to ensure that they are used appropriately and under the guidance of a healthcare professional which helps to minimize some unintentional risks. Everything has flaws but by minimizing those little flaws we can make our future better by the help of these wearable medical devices.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable_computer
- https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/wearable-technology-healthcare-medical-devices/
- https://www.wearable-technologies.com/2018/10/the-state-of-wearable-technology-in-healthcare-current-and-future/
- https://www.towerfast.com/press-room/the-future-of-wearable-medical-devices
- https://funginstitute.berkeley.edu/news/op-ed-the-potential-of-wearable-health-technologies-on-the-future/
- https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/wearable-technology
- https://techno-soft.com/wearable-technology-in-healthcare.html
- https://mhealthintelligence.com/features/how-wearables-can-enhance-cardiac-care-boost-patient-engagement