Wearable Medical Devices - Innovations Shaping the Future of Healthcare

Introduction

Technology has become an essential part of human life nowadays. It has completely changed the living style of the people. Be it a mobile phone, internet, or artificial intelligence; humans are becoming advanced and technologically smart beings. Medical science is also now changing with advanced technologies and artificial intelligence.

Monitoring a patient's condition, following a healthy lifestyle, or watching the calories burn have now become simple because of various medical devices. Small, portable and miniature medical devices have replaced the old medical markets. Today there are more than 2 million medical devices in the markets worldwide. Smartwatches and fitness trackers are people's most commonly worn medical devices worldwide.

What Is a Medical Device?

A medical device is any instrument, machine, apparatus, or implant used for monitoring or screening any health condition.

What Is a Wearable Medical Device?

It is a type of medical device compact in design so that anyone can wear it on the body or carry it anywhere.

When Was the First Wearable Medical Device Developed?

In 1960, a mathematician, Edward, proposed the first wearable medical device.

Functions of Wearable Medical Devices

It is used to:

• Monitor the patient's health status, such as heart rate and blood pressure. It is more commonly used for older people, pregnant women and children.

• Record health conditions or vital signs such as pulse rate.

• Regulate the health of the patient.

• Analyze or detect any abnormality.

• Treat any health condition with the help of sensors or cloud storage.

• Immediately detect or screen the symptoms of the patient.

• Provide reminders to the patient about timely medication and exercise.

• Guide and suggest exercises to the patient.

• Monitor chronic disease to monitor the patient's health remotely, control the disease and so on.

What Are the Examples of Wearable Medical Devices?

1. Biosensor - It is a medical device that comes as an adhesive patch. It continuously tracks and stores data, giving alerts about possible heart attacks.

2. Wearable Sweat Sensor - It detects sweat in the patient’s body and gives an alert about possible abnormality. It also notifies the doctor about it.

3. Fitness Tracker or Watch - It is designed for sports persons and health-conscious people. It became pretty popular among the people and is trending in the markets. It helps monitor daily steps, heart rates and calories burned daily. Based on the data, it also recommends activities to stay fit.

4. Electrocardiogram (ECG) Monitors - These small wearable devices immediately measure the electrocardiogram. Purchasing Portable ECG Monitor has made it easier in managing emergency situations.

5. Blood Pressure Monitors - It provides smart monitoring of the patient's blood pressure every day.

How Do Wearable Medical Devices Transfer Data to the Doctor and Other Platforms?

The medical device stays connected with the cloud server, where the data is stored and transferred to the doctor to view it from a remote location. It can be connected through:

• Wi-fi.

• Bluetooth.

• Ultra-wideband (UWB).

• Low-cost connectivity for small networks such as Zigbee.

What Are the Important Characteristics of an Ideal Wearable Medical Device?

The main features that every wearable medical device should have are mentioned below:

1. Portability - The user should be able to carry the device anywhere. It must work under low network conditions or in remote places. The performance of medical devices should not get affected by the geographical location.

2. User Interaction and Intelligence - The device must be easy to use, understand, or operate. The device must be intelligent to detect and analyze the data and show the diagnosis accordingly.

3. Durability - The device must be durable and sustainable for prolonged use. For example, using unbreakable or waterproof material increases the machine's durability. It should also be easy to maintain or low maintenance.

4. Miniaturization - It is a trend nowadays among manufacturers to develop medical devices as small as possible with modern technology. The device must be small in size to be convenient to wear.

5. Mobility - The device must function with a wireless connection. Most medical devices work with batteries and stay connected through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

What Are the Different Types of Wearable Medical Devices?

Based on the body part where the medical device is worn, it is of three types:

1. Head Devices - These devices are worn on the head of the patient. For example, glasses, hearing aids, earphones, and so on. Nowadays, smart glasses take pictures and do video calls. These are effectively used for telemedicine and health education.

2. Limb Devices - These devices are worn on the patient's legs, hands, or feet. For example, smart watches, fitness trackers, and many others are used to monitor vital signs based on physical activity. Many devices are worn as a shoe or socks also.

3. Torso Devices - Nowadays, fabric materials are used to develop medical devices. These materials are called electronic textiles. This technology is new and is under development.

What Are the Challenges of Using Wearable Medical Devices?

The existing challenges and problems are:

1. Lack of User-Friendly Technology and Health Systems - As these medical devices store the data on a data cloud and further share it on other platforms, it requires a technology-based model and an infrastructure to enable different organizations to transfer the data. False or missing data may affect the diagnosis and health outcome.

2. Lack of Security - The medical devices collect personal information such as geographical location, age, and other patient-related characteristics that increase data leakage.

3. Lack of Regulatory Body - Healthcare systems in every country do not have a specific body to regulate and standardize the manufacturers of the medical devices. It is important to regularize the practice in this emerging industry to prevent false data or mishandling of the data and ensure public trust.

4. Low Data Accuracy - The data collected by the wearable medical device is not entirely accurate because it sometimes misdiagnoses the patient’s condition.

5. Other Issues - Short battery life and high cost are other existing issues because of which people refrain from using wearable medical devices in their everyday life.

Conclusion

Wearable medical devices have made human life easy. It is a trending and new technology-based innovation in the field of medicine that helps monitor and screen patients from remote locations. People conscious about their health also use these devices to follow a healthy lifestyle every day. Smartwatches and fitness trackers are people's most commonly worn medical devices worldwide. However, wearable medical devices have some challenges that may improve with time and with the advancement of health technology.