The Doctor will Analyze You Now: From Health Trackers to Digital Therapeutics (DTx)
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By Alison Nottingham [4 minute read]
Right about now is the time of year when we all start to inwardly reflect on our New Year’s health and wellness goals. Most of us have probably invested in medical monitoring and consumer wearable devices to aid in our self-diagnosis and keep us on track by being more engaged. It’s no surprise though, global wearable healthcare devices account for roughly 16.2 billion in revenue (North America with the greatest market share). The adoption of medical monitoring and consumer wearable devices is predicted to grow this year to 91.3 million in 2023, up from 88.5 million in 2022.
The Growing Momentum of Digital Information
Connected medical and consumer health devices are advancing to the next level of maturity by making our healthcare data faster and easier for us to ‘get it and go’. In 2022, the smart ring was the top-selling consumer health wearable (aside from smartwatches like the Apple Watch) providing a ‘data Swiss Army Knife’ of digital health diagnostics and clinical biomarkers. At CES 2023, we witnessed the smart ring reigning at the top, with the Movano Health’s Evie Ring winning 10 “Best of CES 2023 Awards.” Movano is claiming that their ring is the first medical-grade wearable designed for women. With this improvement of higher quality personal health data at their fingertips, individuals will be able to take more accountability for their own mental health, physical rehabilitation, pain management, and even chronic conditions. Connected medical and consumer health devices increase our self-awareness, improve our confidence, and support our mindset, especially when they can communicate with doctors or healthcare professionals in real-time.
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Introducing Digital Therapeutics
With this improved quality of digital health data, a new category of digital health diagnostics is beginning to emerge – Digital Therapeutics. The purpose of Digital Therapeutics is to aid in current traditional practices and therapies, modify patient behaviors, and even in some cases, replace traditional drug therapies. According to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Report, ‘Assessing the Landscape for Digital Therapeutics,’ patients are progressing to a more engaging ecosystem of healthcare. This new digital health ecosystem is being built with more advanced technology interfaces, which are likely to complement and reinforce one another in a multidimensional care network from patients, medical device companies, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, data protection, and insurance companies. The interoperability of the learning health system will redefine how patients and doctors interact with each other through increased awareness and communication. As adherence to connected medical and consumer health devices increase, a move forward in patient centered care can help alleviate the declining experiences.
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The Future Doctor Will Analyze You Now
Connected medical devices will continue to evolve in dozens of application areas and integrate with our individual and collective efforts. The continued progress will bring a focused future of digital information creating a new population health model. Even though we’ve had the capability for years, it become more common and we will feel more natural to share your wearable data trends directly with your doctor before and during our health visits. And when this interaction becomes the normOne day (maybe sooner rather than later), the question we are asked by our physicians in check-ups won’t be ‘How are you feeling today’, it’ll be ‘Let's look at your analytics.’
About the Author: Alison Nottingham is the EVP of InnovateNOW, LLC and a Partner of Nottingham Unlimited Ventures. She has a Masters in Science and has previously worked for The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Cardiovascular Medicine.