New Wearables Launch | Health & Wellness This Week

This article is part of ParkerWhite’s weekly series, “Health and Wellness This Week,” a roundup of the latest healthcare marketing news and what it means for your marketing strategy.This week, we look at the expanding wearables market, with new product releases from Fitbit as well as a new contender that comes with qualified experience in the digital health field. We also look at digital health adoption and why millennials may be the key to its success.

This week in health and wellness:

• Fitbit releases new wristbands
• Proteus Digital Health launches consumer wearable
• Wearables won’t be mainstream until millennials get sick

Fitbit Releases 3 New Wristbands

‍The Fitbit Charge will track steps taken, floors climbed, calories burned, and uses gyroscopes to assess how well you’re sleeping at night based on how much you toss and turn. New features include notifications from a smartphone and a better battery life. The Fitbit Charge HR does everything the Charge does but also tracks heart rate around the clock. It does this through LED lights that detect blood volume changes in your wrist. The premium offering is the Fitbit Surge, which has a touch-controlled screen, heart rate monitoring, text notifications, and the ability to control your phone’s music. It also features a GPS.

‍Marketing Strategy Insights

• We’re seeing advanced wearables that track more vital signs, showing an increased desire to understand the body
• Wearables continue to improve technology compatibility with smartphones and quality of life features to stay competitive in a crowded market
• Companies must continue to innovate and improve their wearables in order to gain market share through awareness and adoption

Proteus Digital Health Launches Consumer Wearable Marketed to Athletes

‍The medication adherence and wellness monitoring company best known for its ingestible sensor pill released a biometrics monitoring patch for athletes designed to improve post-workout recovery. “Proteus Recover is the only system that supports the 24-hour optimization of athlete recovery and daily physiologic load,” the company writes on its website. “Understanding an athlete’s entire day and night will provide information to drive simple yet impactful changes, maximizing athletic performance.” The product will measure a recovery score (heart rate variability during sleep); sleep duration and stop times; resting and average heart rate; energy expenditure in kilocalories; and subjective feedback from the user.

‍Marketing Strategy Insights

• Wearables and health monitoring is key to projecting peak athletic performance
• Digital health companies can expand their technologies from business to consumer products to increase market scalability and adoption
• Start ups should continue to develop new product offerings after technology successes

Thomas Rodgers of Mckesson Ventures Says Wearables Won’t Go Mainstream Until Millennials Get Sick

‍“I think it will be 15-20 years until it is intertwined with medical care. It will take a shift away from fee-for-service and it will also take generational change. Millennials who grew up with technology will need to start getting sick,” said Rodgers. It’s not the issues of data security, privacy, or lack of interoperability, but “when incentives are in place and when you see doctors asking for them, then it will happen.”

‍Marketing Strategy Insights

• The wearables market continues to be for early adopters until there’s a connected need for vitals tracking and continuous monitoring for health check ups
• Telehealth and wearables will become intertwined as health care providers begin to shift from in-office visits to teleconferencing and wearable patient tracking
• Digital health companies need to continue to advanced their services and products to prepare for the future of digital health as technology adopters age and demand interconnected features