Designing Wearables That Are Truly Patient-Centric
By Eugene Canavan and Terence Kealy, PA Consulting
By 2030, around 12 million people in the U.S. will have abnormal heartbeats, a condition known as arrhythmia, which can cause significant health problems including heart failure. Traditionally, conditions such as arrhythmia have been managed through in-person consultations and in-clinic tests. Wearable health tech represents a critical evolution, deepening the understanding of conditions through more accurate, personalized healthcare data.
Trying to detect future health conditions, from arrhythmia to dementia, is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Contextual, consistent monitoring over weeks, months, and even years increases the likelihood of identifying the triggering event. But many wearables today are clunky and non-intuitive and, in the worst case, force the wearer to make changes to their everyday lives.
An imbalanced tech-first approach to wearables can be detrimental to engagement and, ironically, damage the ability to capture data. In some cases, the individual wearing the device is monitored for multiple days while wearing clunky, sticky electrodes that prevent showering, disrupt sleep, and irritate the skin. What’s more, the data is gathered over a snapshot in time, limiting its usefulness.
There’s a distinct need to create wearables that interweave seamlessly into an individual’s lifestyle, encouraging adherence and gathering long-term, accurate diagnostic data. This data will enable a new therapeutic alliance between patients and healthcare professionals, combining medical knowledge and people’s individual experiences to enhance treatment pathways. Higher-quality data also can support a range of critical healthcare trends, including preventive medicine — identifying problems early and reducing healthcare spend.
The ideal is an accessible, easy-to-use wearable device that blends seamlessly with people’s daily lives. But it also has to look good, feel comfortable, and — most importantly — provide high-quality long-term data. So, how do we get there?
Prioritize Patient-Centric Design
Wearable devices should slot so smoothly into people’s lives that they’re hardly noticeable. The only way to create ultra-convenient, attractive wearables is through user-centric, empathetic design. This isn’t simply about listening to feedback. It’s about understanding, through co-creation and testing, how devices integrate into people’s daily lives.
Off-the-shelf tech, namely smart watches, have built familiarity with human-first health. Newer, smaller devices like the Oura Ring have proven the concept of engaging, aesthetic healthcare trackers that people actually want to wear. But, often, consumer devices don’t provide diagnostic-level data. They combine user data, metabolic monitoring, and algorithms to make inferences, filling gaps with assumptions.
People who require medical-grade monitoring need wearables to be as familiar, approachable, and engaging as consumer technology solutions, without compromising data quality. Creating wearables that patients truly embrace wearing will enable devices to collect the necessary amount of high-quality data. Sizing is critical to successfully collecting high-quality data. One-size-fits-all designs simply won’t work, especially as bodies change over time. Wearables should be flexible and enable long-term comfort. It’s essential for different capabilities to collaborate to deliver a solution that has longevity across firmware, electronic design, systems design, garment design, and engineering.
The Viscero ECG vest, for example, is a sleek lightweight T-shirt that can be worn regularly for long periods of time. Similarly, Cala kIQ is an FDA-cleared wrist-worn wearable that delivers therapy for individuals with essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson’s disease. Approximately 7 million people in the U.S. have ET, while up to a million people suffer from Parkinson’s. Traditionally, these conditions are treated with medication and surgery, but new wearable technologies like Cala kIQ have started to offer non-intrusive, aesthetic alternatives that measure unique tremor physiology to create a nerve stimulation pattern for tremor relief.
Embrace New Healthcare Models And Pathways
Today, organizations across the healthcare ecosystem, including medtech companies, want concrete evidence to justify investment in new solutions and treatment pathways and ensure a strong ROI. Gathering this evidence relies on robust, accurate data about treatment performance. Wearables play a clear role in supporting value-based care, analyzing solutions in situ. But for this to happen, wearables need to be accepted and adopted within healthcare pathways.
The benefits of bringing next-generation, diagnostic-level wearables into healthcare pathways is clear. They deepen the understanding of conditions and treatments on a micro and macro scale, flagging person-specific anomalies while widening the ability to forecast and complete comparative analysis between, for example, demographic groups. They also avoid intrusive operations associated with medical implants, and they can completely transform treatment delivery, not just diagnosis. The Cumulus head-worn device, for example, wraps simple, soft textiles around medical-grade monitoring capabilities. The headset can screen someone with a family history of a condition like Alzheimer’s, monitoring changes in brain activity to catalyze a treatment path. The headset can monitor the individual throughout treatment to ensure (and evidence) effectiveness. And it only needs to be worn for 20 minutes a day, suiting even very busy schedules.
Technology has clear potential to ease the burden on healthcare delivery, benefiting patients, healthcare professionals, and the organizations delivering care. Prime examples include supporting digital preventive healthcare and changing pathways by enabling more care at home. As the prevalence of wearable technology grows, there is a need for a hand-in-hand relationship between device developers, data managers, analytics teams, and the wider healthcare ecosystem. This is especially crucial in remodelling care pathways to harness the full potential of new technologies.
Socialize And Support
Truly wearable technology will drive adherence, unlock high-quality data insights, and ultimately open new healthcare pathways. However, the devices need to be maintained and used correctly. Medtech companies have a role to play in supporting professionals and patients through training, accessible instructions, and guidance. And, critically, wearable devices need to display the correct level of data in the right way.
Monitoring information is often divided into advisory and diagnostic information. Healthcare professionals focus on diagnostic information, while patients receive advisory information. It’s important to avoid alarming users with too much data or arming them with assumptions that trigger a difficult interaction with a healthcare professional. In a world where patients are acutely aware of data privacy and security, they want to be in control and experience the benefits that come from wearable-derived data. Data should enrich, not complicate, the conversation between professionals and patients — strengthening the therapeutic alliance.
A high-level dashboard, for instance, might confirm to the wearer that the device is operating as it should. Healthcare professionals could then drill down into the detail, aided by AI, to identify anomalies and make data-led diagnoses. The Viscero ECG vest, for example, pairs with an app for patient information and interaction, while medical professionals receive diagnostic-level data supporting patient treatment.
The healthcare ecosystem of the near future is grounded in a therapeutic alliance between healthcare professionals and users, where condition-relevant information fuels more accurate diagnoses and improved treatments.
To be successful, wearables must be intuitive and non-intrusive so that patients can accept them into their daily lives. These devices, created alongside users, will be seamless, passive, and always on. Their ability to collect high-quality diagnostic data for much longer periods will enhance the therapeutic relationship between professionals and patients. And, importantly, wearables will support a value-based healthcare ecosystem grounded in medical evidence.