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Prescription-only wearables have the potential to be not merely life-changing, but life-critical to those who need them. Such devices are already known to be especially effective at monitoring chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or epilepsy in ‘real time’, sending notifications and alerts every time the wearer enters a ‘danger zone’.

While many of these medical grade wearables start as single purpose devices (such as, for instance, the

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Wearables to assess, advise and improve health and wellbeing has long been one of the key use cases of the technology. Now, here’s a new idea which has come out of Google: a health-tracking wristband which is prescribed to patients or used for clinical trials.

As reported by Bloomberg the device, which is...

Fitbit retains the number one position in the global wearable device market, but is under stiff competition from Chinese-based firm Xiaomi, according to the latest numbers from IDC.

The figures represent a stark closing in on Fitbit’s market dominance. The San Francisco-based company punts out 34.2% of the 11.4 million wearables shipped in the first quarter of 2015, compared with Xiaomi’s 2.8 million (24.6%).

Xiaomi’s first wearable device was announced in July 2014, which naturally...

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It’s official: San Francisco-based fitness wearable manufacturer Fitbit is preparing to go public.

The documents, issued on May 7, reveal a company which is, on the surface, in good health; quarterly revenue tripling year over year, from $108.8m in Q114 to $336.8m in Q115. The number of paid users has also rocketed comparatively; from 2.6m at the end of 2013, to 6.7m the same time the year after, and 9.5m by the end of Q115, while device numbers have grown from 4.5m to 10.9m...

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The analysts at Juniper Research have gotten the tea leaves and crystal ball out again, and predicted annual revenues from connected healthcare and fitness services will approach $2bn by 2019, almost six times the value estimated for this year.

The findings, which appear in the report “Smart Wireless Devices: CE, Enterprise, Fitness, Healthcare, Payments 2015-2019”, examine the prevalence and market value of ‘smart wearable devices’, which Juniper defines as...

Wearables are taking off thanks to how they help to keep a track on our health and can offer small tips and prompts which can make a huge difference to our personal wellbeing. In fact, just yesterday we posted an article about how they are expected to help us predict major disease outbreaks.

Mango Health, which has executives from both the mobile and...

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Everyone was either showing off hardware, or discussing the future of wearable devices at Mobile World Congress this year. Smartwatches took most of the attention, but was stalked by some impressive VR headsets from a range of manufacturers...

Huawei

Huawei somewhat stole the show with their smartwatch unveil. The manufacturer is often known for great smartphones which often undercut the...

The fitness industry is driving wearable adoption, as the success of devices such as Fitbit proves. In fact, on-stage at MWC we heard from Fitbit's Vice President, Gareth Jones, about how their range are breaking into a market which has been reserved to early-adopters through partnerships such as that with WeightWatchers.

So far, these trackers have focused on things like heart rate and perspiration. The most important part of a person's wellbeing, however, is their mental state. No-one wants to...

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Does your workout routine and calorie intake impact your purchasing decisions? Under Armour and many other athletic and lifestyle brands are betting that it does. That’s why they recently invested heavily in a number of fitness apps, like Endomondo and MyFitnessPal. It’s just another example of how every company is adopting technical aspects in order stay relevant.

Ultimately, Under...

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Over the past 18 months we have witnessed a sharp rise in the popularity of wearable technology, particularly in fitness and activity trackers. Medical Director of the NHS, Sir Bruce Keogh, recently told The Guardian how such wearables could eventually revolutionise the healthcare industry. With the public fitness habit intensifying and the technology growing more...

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If you’ve got a smartphone and are looking to get fit, looking at the wearable devices on offer, then you might want to hold back on that purchase for now. A new research letter from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) argues smartphones apps are just as effective as wearable devices in tracking step counts.

JAMA’s paper, entitled ‘Accuracy of Smartphone Applications and Wearable...

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Meet HIRIS. HIRIS stands for Human Interactive Reliable Integrated System, and boldly claims to be the “first wearable computer for everyone.” It’s a big claim – but does it stack up?

The main reasoning behind this claim is because HIRIS can withstand any environment and be placed anywhere, from different body parts to on tennis rackets. This isn’t an entirely new idea; Misfit Wearables,

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Health insurance provider, AXA PPP, is hosting their first ever "Health Tech & You" awards at the Design Museum in London and will announce an overall winner during a ceremony on the 18th March 2015. Perhaps predictably, the shortlist is laden with wearable and connected devices which monitor health and performance to usher in a new-generation of patient-led...

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Stop kidding yourself. Simply wearing a fitness tracker for a couple of months was never going to make you reach your health goals. In order for your new gadget to have any meaningful impact on your health, you need to know how to use it as effectively as possible.

1. Establish a Baseline

You might be raring to try out your new toy, but if you want to track your fitness level accurately you’ll need to establish a...

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it will only monitor wearable devices that claim to help diagnose and treat major illnesses.

The majority of devices on the market, however, will be classified in the ‘general wellness’ category, which as the name suggests relates more to general wellbeing and can be associated with weight management, physical fitness, improving self-esteem, sleep management or sexual function.

The FDA notes it’s more the classification...

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A report published by A&D Medical of more than 2000 US adults has found more than half (56%) of respondents want to monitor their health with connected health devices that automatically send information to their doctors.

The potential of wearable technology, connected devices all powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) is here to stay – and according to A&D, consumers are increasingly looking for buy-in. Blood pressure (37%) was the most popular test respondents wanted to...

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We’ve got some bad news for you. That Fitbit, or Jawbone you got for Christmas isn’t going to magically make you a healthier person, or even really influence you to become healthier, just because of the technology involved.

That’s the key takeaway from a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which argues that mobile health apps need to do better in utilising theories of health behaviour, rather than focus on the...

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Wearable technology provider Jawbone has released two wristbands targeting different markets; UP MOVE, a $50 basic activity tracker, and UP3, a $180 wristband which captures detailed information on sleeping patterns and heart rate.

The UP3 offers a wide variety of goodies, including a multi-sensor platform which provides a user’s resting heart rate, and is designed to capture more health data as the platform updates. It also has a ‘smart coach’ mode, whereby the band...

Microsoft has just unveiled their fitness band with the most sensors of any wrist-worn consumer device yet. In total, the "Microsoft Band" packs 10 different types including sensors which allow it to measure heart rate, stress levels, and even UV exposure.

But not a company to sit still, Google has announced the tech giant is working on perhaps the most important and innovative solution yet, cancer detection. Google has developed a "nanoparticle pill" which they will incorporate with a...

Microsoft will announce their millenial entry into the wearables market in the coming weeks, as reported by Forbes and confirmed by sources close to the Redmond-based giant. It seems that the company isn't going to be late-to-the-party as it was with Windows Phone...

The upcoming wearable is said to be focused on fitness and is more of a smartband.

But it's possible that Microsoft has shown their device already. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is a TV show laden with the company's products - whether...