mHealth To Expand Through Smart Fitness Devices

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A recent report says the smart fitness device market is poised for growth in the coming years and consumers are driving its expansion.

Earlier this year, Health IT Outcomes reported that three in four Americans plan to purchase a fitness device in 2016. This demand is also evident in a Grand View Research report that predicts massive growth for the smart fitness device market in the coming years.

Of the earlier patient survey, 35 percent said they plan to buy a smartwatch in the coming year. Thirty percent of users expressed interest in downloading fitness related apps, 27 percent said they plan to get a dedicated fitness tracking device, 27 percent said they want to purchase smart apparel, and 23 percent plan to get a device that tracks sleep patterns.

Grand View Research’s report notes the predicted growth can be attributed to “increasing awareness level of people pertaining to fitness, increasing demand for aesthetically appealing, efficient, time saving portable and wearable devices and increasing healthcare disposable income.”

Fierce Mobile Healthcare writes one potential barrier to this growth is the cost of such devices, which may prove to be too expensive in emerging countries.

Smartwatches have the most growth potential, since they are so versatile. “The smartwatch is enabled to perform functions beyond time keeping,” explains the report. “From healthcare point of view they are used for temperature measurement, heartbeat, and pulse measurement along with blood glucose level monitoring for diabetic patients (in few cases). The smart watches are enabled with GPS navigation, camera, thermometer, chronograph, mass storage device, touch screen and scheduler. It functions as a portable minicomputer.”