Wearable technologies – future challenges for implementation in healthcare services

Abstract

The growing use of wearable technologies increases the ability to have more information from the patient including clinical, behavioural and self-monitored data. The availability and large amounts of data that did not exist before brings an opportunity to develop new tools with intelligent analyses and decision support tools for use in clinical practice. It also opens new possibilities for the patients by providing them with more information and decision support tools specially designed for them, and empowers them in managing their own health conditions, keeping their autonomy. These new developments drive a change in healthcare delivery models and the relationship between patients and healthcare providers. It raises challenges for the healthcare systems in how to implement these new technologies and the growing amount of information in clinical practice, integrate it into the clinical workflows of the various healthcare providers. The future challenge for healthcare will be how to use the developing knowledge in a way that will bring added value to healthcare professionals, healthcare organisations and patients without increasing the workload and cost of the healthcare services. For wearable technology developers, the challenge is to develop solutions that can be easily integrated and used by healthcare professionals considering the existing constraints.