Wearable Health Tech devices and garments are in a development boom period. The potential of continuous monitoring with automated alerts in critical moments to improve overall health, prevent conditions from worsening, and save money by helping people before they need more costly care or procedures is immense. With the focus worldwide on the rising costs of health care concomitant with the fast-emerging Internet of Things Health Tech sector, it’s only natural that noninvasive, passive garments and devices would have appeal to consumers and health care providers. We’ve looked at wearable health monitoring technology such as Jovil Circuit’s Peak+, Glassy Zone’s surfer’s wrist band, and sensors that focus on posture and movement. Each company is carving a specific sensor and reporting focus.
Biovotion’s VSM1 promises “body management at clinical grade under motion”. The VSM1 device is an armband worn on the upper arm. It sends captured data via Bluetooth wireless connection to a smartwatch or smartphone from which it is then transmitted to cloud storage. Consumers and medical care providers can both access the data for their respective purposes. The VSM1 currently measures heart rate, blood oxygenation, skin temperature, skin blood perfusion, steps, and motion. According to the company, future parameters under development include respiratory rate, heart rate variability, energy expenditure, blood pressure wave, stress, sleep, cutaneous water/sweat, and blood glucose.
The Biovotion mission is to promote predictive intelligent health monitoring via wearable sensors, near range and distant communication, and useful data analysis for consumers and healthcare professionals. Whether or not consumers are ready yet to wear health monitoring devices or healthcare providers are ready to adopt them in their practices and systems, this is a tide that appears to have no discernible breaker.
