Wearable Technology has been in existence for over last 5 years. However, in India, it is slowly gaining acceptance. People have started using Garmin, Apple Watch, Fitbit and now GoQii (Home grown Indian startup in wearable technology space). Garmin has predominantly been in use with sports persons (Running, Golf and Cycling) and Fitbit has also come to India few years ago.
Wearable technology can help motivate people to exercise, add friends and see how they are comparing with others. Also, these devices gather a load of data for personal monitoring. These days, these devices even gather your heart rate all through the day.
If you ask me today, this data is predominantly for personal use. But, this data can be used to consistently monitor your health and also your Doctor can see a live day-to-day analysis of how you are managing your health. Also, with apps like MyFitnessPal which help you in monitoring your food and water intake, this data becomes very valuable to your Doctor who can better judge your Health.
I have been using wearable technology for over 2 years and I have all the data with me, I am waiting for startups to focus on building interfaces with these wearable tech apps so that I can understand and decimate what the information is telling me.
This technology is at nascent stage and I am quite sure in the next decade, it will become mandatory.
This is the third Part of my future of Healthcare thoughts. Read Part 1 and Part 2