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Royal Philips has announced the launch of a new wearable healthcare monitoring solution for patients in ‘low acuity’ situations.

Healthcare stakeholders are looking for cost-effective means to monitor, diagnose and treat patients as across the globe, while the industry is faced with a burgeoning ageing population and an increasing number of people with chronic diseases accounting for 86% of healthcare costs. Philips looks to address this need with its connected health solutions...

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Regular readers of this publication who remember GreatCall launching its Lively device which combines health functionality with emergency response – well, the company needs a little bit of help with it.

GreatCall has launched an Indiegogo campaign for its Lively Wearable, which will see feedback gained from early adopters, as well as aiming to reach...

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Toy manufacturing giant Mattel has completed the acquisition of Sproutling, a maker of smart technology products and smart monitors for parents and families.

Sproutling, with offices in San Francisco, will keep developing and launching products under the bespoke brand. Additionally, the company will collaborate on design and development of new products for the Mattel range of brands, based on Sproutling's technology platform.

Mattel global head of strategic development and M&A,...

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Unless you've been living under a rock this past week, you will know the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a global emergency due to a widespread outbreak of the Zika virus – known to cause birth defects with lifelong implications. Whilst scientists around the globe work hard to create a vaccine against Zika, it could be a wearable device which offers vital protection and...

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The recent focus around wearables at CES pricked my attention yet again. There can be no doubt that wearables are more than just a passing fad, they have engaged consumers in new ways by providing the ability to capture and track health information. But what are we doing with all the data captured by wearables, and how can this benefit the healthcare system?

More often than not, the...

Your posture is an important thing – it affects your long-term spine health, and can make a huge difference when it comes to body language. Wearable devices are bringing innovative new ways to improve our daily habits, and the Lumo Lift wants to fill the void as the posture coach you didn't know you needed. 

Hardware 

Lumo Body Tech is the company behind the Lift, a company which specialises in performance-monitoring wearables. The main part of the kit is a...

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A wearable device will soon be trialled by the NHS in the West of England which aims to be a 'digital coach' for patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. The project is the first of seven which have been greenlit as part of the NHS Innovation Test Beds programme, and will be led by the West of England Academic Health Science Network...

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MasterCard and Coin have announced a partnership to add MasterCard payments to a number of smartwatches, fitness bands and wearable devices.

The collaboration adds on to an announcement by MasterCard in October 2015 that introduced the Commerce for Every Device programme. This programme aims at enabling payments via any consumer gadget, wearable or accessory.

Under the partnership, Coin will provide the software and hardware to be integrated with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service...

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Smartwatches are the most likely product to be purchased in the health and fitness technology sector, according to a report from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

More than one third (35%) of US respondents who said they were likely to purchase health and fitness technology in the coming 12 months said they would buy a smartwatch, ahead of fitness related apps (30%), dedicated wearable fitness activity trackers (27%), smart apparel (27%) and devices which track sleep patterns...

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Connected health technology provider GreatCall has launched a wearable product which combines the health functions of an activity tracker with the safety benefits of a mobile emergency response service.

The offering, launched at the CES show, aims to develop a wearable health hub for the active ageing market, eases concerns of caregivers and empowers older adults. The Lively Wearable, which pairs with a smartphone via Bluetooth, can be worn either as a wristband or around the neck...

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According to Ericsson ConsumerLab's '10 Hot Consumer Trends for 2016' report from its global research programme, internal sensors within the body may become the new generation of wearables.

Eight out of 10 consumers surveyed said that they would like technology that enhances their cognitive abilities and sensory perception, such as hearing, memory and vision. More than half would also want to improve their communication capabilities. One in three consumers expressed...

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Health insurers are starting to factor in data from fitness devices when looking at policy premiums.

For example, VitalityHealth has started to accept data from Garmin, Polar, and other major fitness monitoring devices. It even offers discounts to policyholders to purchase some of the units. Some major insurers will help create a health plan based on the data from these devices.

On the...

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Remote Medical Technologies (RMT) will introduce wearable telemedicine solution iMedHD2 EyeCandy at the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) Annual Meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago, US, from November 29 to December 4. iMedHD2 EyeCandy is a wearable eyeglass device that facilitates real-time transmission of live images.

The wearable solution will provide a radiologist with remote monitoring, allowing them to instruct technicians from a distance. The solution...

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The Healbe GoBe wearable device has made monitoring of hydration levels easier by introducing automatic tracking via a new firmware update – and now users will not have to manually input the amount of fluids consumed as the device’s impedance sensor ascertains overall hydration level.

The Healbe FLOW Technology uses data on physical activity levels and calories burnt to determine water requirement. Healbe GoBe provides two readings on hydration level – normal...

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Juniper Research has released a report that projects hardware revenues generated from the fitness wearables sector to nearly triple from an estimated $3.3 billion (GBP 2.2 billion) in 2015 to $10bn (GBP 6.6bn) by 2020, mainly on account of sales of wrist-based trackers.

Fitness currently outstrips fashion as the key purchase driver among wearable consumers. More than 70% of those weighing the purchase of a wearable are looking to use a fitness device. As a result, the current demand...

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Though wearables have gained a lot of attention in the consumer segment, such devices have the potential for adoption in the enterprise and even in the medical arena, as evidenced by researchers in the UK.

According to News Medical, Nottingham Trent University has collaborated with the Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust on the design on a...

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Just over 10% of warehouse professionals have programmes underway or being planned for IoT adoption, according to a Daintree Networks report.

Though the market for wearable robots and exoskeletons is still in its early stages, there exists a lot of potential for growth as the number of applications begins to increase. AcuteMarketReports.com has added a new report that expects the value of the market to rise from $16.5 million in 2014 to $2.1 billion by 2021. The key regions...

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Re-Timer is a pair of glasses designed in Australia which uses light therapy to alter your circadian rhythm, or "body clock" as it's often known. One season in particular causes havoc with our natural sleep cycle and can affect our mental state, winter. 

Many people, including me, suffer from something called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) whereby the short hours of daylight – combined with dark mornings and evenings –...

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A new report by Mordor Intelligence has forecast that the global wearable medical device market will exceed $7.8 billion (£5.07bn) by 2020.

The report defines wearable medical devices as those that are attached to the human body and act as biosensors to monitor and detect changes in key body indicators, and to capture physiological data. Given their functions, the devices are autonomous, non-invasive and primarily used for clinical monitoring. They are used for monitoring...

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A recent article in Bioscience Technology acknowledged how new technologies are generating significant amounts of data in the healthcare and life sciences sectors, and how this is viewed as a positive development for these markets. Data is no longer just being produced from lab...