Wearable devices such as patient monitors and health trackers are becoming an important part of patient healthcare, according to research from Juniper Research. In a report titled “Digital Health: Disruptor Analysis, Country Readiness & Technology Forecasts 2018-2023, “the firm projects that wearable medical devices will account for $20 billion in revenue by 2023.
Meanwhile, the firm projects assistive hearables, or connected hearing aids made available via healthcare providers, as well as directly to customers, will produce revenue of over $40 billion by 2022. Overall, revenue from wearables will total $60 billion, says Juniper Research.
According to the firm, adoption of healthcare wearables will be driven by improvements in remote patient monitoring technology, in addition to increased adoption by medical institutions. Juniper forecasts that 5 million individuals will be remotely monitored by healthcare providers by 2023.
The research forecasts that the advanced ability of AI-enabled software analytics to proactively identify individuals at risk of their condition worsening will witness increased confidence among medical practitioners and regulators with regard to sensor accuracy.
As the growth of wearables affects patient treatment plans, OEMs will seek to adjust their business models and generate revenue from devices being monitored, according to the firm. For example, service revenue from selling data produced by the devices to insurance providers will reach $855 million by 2023.