Senior Woman Calling Ambulance

Part of the wearable Health Tech device revolution is that we have have more information available about what’s going on with our bodies than ever before. All sorts of new applications become possible as people figure out new ways to use this information. A perfect example is a smartphone app called Neutun that is designed to help people who have epileptic seizures.

The app runs in the background, monitoring motion data sent by a smartwatch. If the motion does not match a normal profile, it triggers an alarm. The user has 15 seconds to respond to the alert to indicate that he or she is okay. If there’s no response, the device sends out a notification to family or caregivers, indicating that there might be a problem. The system also stores the wearer’s medical data, making it available to first responders if there is a medical emergency. The app also does other useful tasks, such as providing a log for your medications and other health observations that you can share with your physician or other healthcare workers.

At present, the app is only available for the Pebble watch, but other watches will be supported soon. This is just one good example of novel ways that the data generated by wearables can be used to perform useful tasks.