Should Wearables Target the & #039;Walking Well & #039; Before Going After a Medical Indication?

As recently as 2017, there was still more talk than action in the clinical wearables market and the majority of companies making wearable devices were pursuing health and wellness applications first, with plans to pursue a medical device indication after the consumer version of the product took off. In some cases that is still true, but a panel of experts speaking at BIOMEDevice Boston 2019 highlighted a new trend. One that might seem unexpected for those who have been following the wearables market for the past five years or longer. "I'm in the medical space, I'm used to dealing with CGMs [continuous glucose monitors] which are medical products. I'm now being contacted by companies who say 'I want to measure the lactate in elite athletes.' So it's actually a migration from the medical space more toward the consumer space," said Martin Peacock, a director at Napa Valley, CA-based Zimmer and Peacock. "So for me, the directions I'm seeing is glucose monitoring but not necessarily for medical. Lactate monitoring but not necessarily for medical. Hydration monitoring but not necessarily for medical." Still, Peacock said he always encourages people to go after the athletic or well-being space first, and then consider pursuing a medical indication. "Medical is something we do, but it's also the migration backward from medical," Peacock said. "They say because you can do a CGM sensor, can you make us a hydration ...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Digital Health Software Source Type: news