Smart Wearables in Healthcare, 2016-2030

LONDON, Jan. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

INTRODUCTION
Owing to the indispensable need of every individual to remain healthy, the healthcare sector has been a key element in the overall growth of society and economy. With the ever increasing global population that currently stands at 7.4 billion, healthcare management is a primary challenge as more and more people become aware about fitness and health. In order to address this challenge, the industry is obligated to revise, restructure and improve its services and methodologies. The trend has recently shifted towards the adoption of a more proactive approach in healthcare; this is being achieved by focusing on early detection of any / all adverse health conditions and implementing preventive measures. A blend of information technology within healthcare sector has resulted in several revolutionary developments for personalized healthcare. Examples of such innovations include genome sequencing, use of robots in healthcare and remote patient monitoring; in fact, smart wearables form a key component of remote patient monitoring while offering several associated benefits.

Defined as wearables that contain active electronics such as sensors, audio / video feedback mechanisms and data processing / transmission capabilities, smart wearables are becoming quite popular amongst the masses. Such wearables allow an individual to monitor and share critical insights on his / her health with the physician without having to visit a healthcare professional. These wearables are generally classified as smart wrist wearables, smart patches, smart clothes, smart head / neck wear and smart ear / eye wearables while their applications span across activity / fitness tracking, monitoring & diagnostics, therapy and other areas. At present, smart wrist wearables dominate the market with presence of a large variety of wearables, primarily for activity / fitness tracking. Several start-ups, with innovative wearables, have surfaced in the past 6-7 years and have continuously encouraged the use of novel technologies. A sizeable proportion of these companies are focused on gaining foothold in the field of monitoring & diagnosis and wearables offering therapeutic benefits. The current market is primarily concentrated in North America and Europe; these regions have presence of a large number of companies focused on development of smart wearables. It is fair to state that, in the long term, emerging markets of Asia (specifically India and China) are likely to emerge as credible contributors; commoditized prices will be a significant factor that could result in mass adoption amongst the wide consumer base in these regions.

The overall interest continues to rise as is evident from the number of partnerships / agreements that have taken place amongst the stakeholders. Product development agreements have been very common and are likely to play an active role in industry's development. Moreover, several venture capital firms including (indicative list, in no specific order) Qualcomm Ventures, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Sanderling Ventures, DCM Ventures, ff Venture Capital and True Ventures have led multiple funding rounds in these companies, acting as a key enabler in the current ecosystem. A well distributed market of these next generation wearables across several stakeholders presents a good opportunity for evolution of innovative technologies. A stronger and more collaborative ecosystem amongst the wide variety of stakeholders could result in a significantly higher growth compared to what the industry has experienced in the recent past.

SCOPE OF THE REPORT
The 'Smart Wearables in Healthcare, 2016-2030' report provides a comprehensive analysis of the current market landscape and a detailed future outlook of smart wearables focused on improving the quality of lives of people from a healthcare / fitness perspective. The report highlights the various applications of smart wearables across a wide range of sectors such as gaming, entertainment, healthcare / fitness and lifestyle. A significant amount of innovation in smart wearables industry is centred in the healthcare sector. The study provides a holistic coverage of developments that are impacting the current healthcare setup and are likely to drive significant changes in healthcare management approaches in the future. In fact, a close look at historical trends on social media platforms clearly indicates the growing popularity of smart wearables / devices amongst the masses.

One of the key objectives of this study was to identify the various smart wearables that are currently available / being developed and evaluate the future potential of the market within the healthcare industry. Combined, these wearables offer a huge opportunity for their respective developers as the industry gets ready for the launch of next generation of these products. In addition to other elements, the study elaborates on the following areas:

- The current status of the market with respect to key players in this segment, specific applications (such as activity / fitness tracking, monitoring & diagnostics and therapy) and therapeutic areas these products intend to address.
- 2x2 matrices depicting product competitiveness and supplier power across the growing landscape of smart wearables to assess the likely influence such products will have in the future.
- Impact of venture capital funding as well as numerous partnerships inked between the stakeholders; it is important to stress that these are the two key enablers that will continue to drive developments in the near term.
- Detailed profiles of some of the established as well as emerging players in the industry highlighting key product features, user / professional reviews and other relevant information.
- Case study on the various components that are commonly used in smart wearables along with a list of manufacturers / service providers for these components.
- Potential future growth of smart wearables (both in terms of volume and value) across the different segments (wrist wearables, smart patches, smart clothes, head / neck wearables and ear / eye wearables) and application areas (activity / fitness tracking, monitoring & diagnostics and therapy). The report provides sales forecast for the global and specific regional markets (North America, Europe, Developed Asia and Rest of the World) till 2030. We have taken into account the price variation that is likely to happen because of mass acceptance and increased competition.

For the purposes of the study, we invited over 150 stakeholders to participate in the study to solicit their opinions on upcoming opportunities and challenges that must be considered for a more inclusive growth. Our opinions and insights presented in this study were influenced by discussions conducted with several key players in this domain.

The report features detailed transcripts of interviews held with Andrew Ronchi (CEO, dorsaVi), Anthony Gonzales (Co-founder and Executive Director, Force Impact Technologies), Jeff Sweeney (Director Market Development, Nortek Security & Control), Marc Paquin (Director Partnerships and Business Development, Hexoskin), Soulaiman Itani (Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Atheer), Steve Axelrod (President and Chief Executive Officer, G-Tech Medical) and Tansy Brook (Marketing Director and Research Lead, Lumo Bodytech).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Most of the data presented in this report has been gathered through secondary research. We have also conducted interviews with experts in the area (academia, industry, medical practice and other associations) to solicit their opinions on emerging trends in the market. This is primarily useful for us to draw out our own opinion on how the market will shape up across different regions and wearable types. Where possible, the available data has been checked for accuracy from multiple sources of information.

The secondary sources of information include:
- Annual reports
- Investor presentations
- SEC filings
- Industry databases
- News releases from company websites
- Government policy documents
- Other analysts' opinion reports

While the focus has been on forecasting the market over the coming 15 years, the report also provides our independent view on various technological and non-commercial trends emerging in the industry. This opinion is solely based on our knowledge, research and understanding of the relevant market gathered from various secondary and primary sources of information.

CHAPTER OUTLINES
Chapter 2 provides an executive summary of the insights captured in our study. The summary offers a high level view on the likely market evolution of smart wearables in the healthcare domain.

Chapter 3 is an introductory chapter on smart wearables. It includes details on how the industry has historically evolved and how the various innovations in the IT sector have impacted the healthcare sector. The chapter provides an overview on various types of wearables across different industries such as healthcare / fitness, entertainment lifestyle and gaming. In addition, it highlights the emerging trends on social media related to smart wearables in the recent past.

Chapter 4 identifies various smart wearables along with their applications in healthcare industry. The classification system for the technologies mentioned in this chapter helps develop a deeper understanding of the market. We have categorized the smart wearables on the basis of type (smart wrist wearables, smart patches, smart clothes, smart head / neck wearables and smart ear / eye wearables), purpose (activity / fitness tracking, monitoring & diagnostics and therapy) and therapeutic areas (such as cardiovascular & metabolic, cardiopulmonary, neurological disorders, sleep monitoring, respiratory disorders and pain management). In addition, we have done an extensive 2X2 analysis to measure the relative product competitiveness and supplier power across some of the most prominent categories of smart wearables.

Chapter 5 provides a detailed review of smart wearables which offer activity / fitness tracking. Wrist wearables are the most popular wearables used for activity / fitness tracking. Several companies have introduced a series of activity / fitness trackers in the recent past. We have presented profiles of leading players covering information about the company and details on their product portfolio. These details include key features of the products and reviews by customers / industry experts.

Chapter 6 provides a detailed review of several smart wearables which are used for monitoring & diagnostic purposes. This application area includes a wide variety of smart wearables including wrist wearables, smart patches, smart clothes and head / neck wearables. We have presented profiles of several leading players covering information about the company and details on their product portfolios. The details include key features of the products and reviews by the customers / industry experts.

Chapter 7 reviews several smart wearables offering therapeutic benefits. The focus of such wearables is primarily pain / stress management. We have presented profiles of several leading players covering information about the company and details on their product portfolios. The details include key features of the products and reviews by customers / industry experts.

Chapter 8 provides a detailed review of smart wearables for primary applications other than the ones mentioned in Chapters 5, 6 and 7. For instance, several companies are focusing on development of smart wearables for posture management. We have presented profiles of key players in this area covering information about the company and details on their product portfolios.

Chapter 9 highlights the recent partnerships that have taken place in this domain. We have discussed the various partnership models in existence and the most common forms of deals / agreements that have evolved over time.

Chapter 10 provides information on several funding instances that have driven innovations in this industry. Our analysis reveals interesting insights on the growing interest of venture capitalists and other stakeholders in this market.

Chapter 11 presents a detailed 15 year forecast highlighting the future potential of smart wearables in the healthcare industry. The forecast (both in terms of value and volume) across the various types smart wearables (wrist, patches, clothes, head / neck, ear and eye) is backed by robust secondary research and inputs gathered from senior stakeholders via primary research. The analysis also highlights the relative growth opportunity across the smart wearables focused on activity / fitness tracking, monitoring & diagnostics and those offering therapeutic benefits. In addition, we have segregated the opportunity across different regions of the world to ascertain the likely evolution across the North American, European, Developed Asian and other markets.

Chapter 12 provides an overview of commonly used accessories / sensors in smart wearables. We have also listed some of the players involved in manufacturing these components.

Chapter 13 presents insights from the survey conducted for this study. We invited over 150 stakeholders involved in the development of different types of smart wearables; these stakeholders, who were primarily Director / CXO level representatives of respective companies, helped us develop a deeper understanding on the nature of their products and the associated commercial potential.

Chapter 14 summarizes the overall report. In this chapter, we provide a recap of the key takeaways and an independent future outlook based on the research and analysis described in earlier chapters.

Chapter 15 is a collection of transcripts of interviews conducted with key players during the course of this study. We have presented the details on our discussions with Andrew Ronchi (CEO, dorsaVi), Anthony Gonzales (Co-founder and Executive Director, Force Impact Technologies), Jeff Sweeney (Director Market Development, Nortek Security & Control), Marc Paquin (Director Partnerships and Business Development, Hexoskin), Soulaiman Itani (Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Atheer), Steve Axelrod (President and Chief Executive Officer, G-Tech Medical) and Tansy Brook (Marketing Director and Research Lead, Lumo Bodytech).

Chapter 16 is an appendix, which provides tabulated data and numbers for all the figures provided in the report.

Chapter 17 is an appendix, which provides a list of companies and organizations mentioned in the report.

EXAMPLE HIGHLIGHTS
1. We identified close to 250 smart wearables, being developed by over 150 companies, across different segments of the industry. The current landscape is dominated by activity / fitness trackers; in fact, wrist wearables, made available by leading players on several B2C platforms, are widely used.
2. Of late, the focus has broadened; the companies have intensified their efforts towards development of more complex applications in monitoring critical parameters such as ECG, EEG, EMG, blood pressure, blood glucose monitoring, aiding in timely and accurate diagnosis. Such wearables represent ~40% of the products we identified. In addition, the trend has also shifted towards smart wearables that provide therapeutic benefit. These wearables currently have applications in pain / stress / anxiety management.
3. The overall market is highly fragmented across the different segments highlighted above. Despite the presence of new players, several well-known non-healthcare stakeholders such as (indicative list, in no specific order) Apple, Adidas, Asus, Acer, Huawei, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Nike, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Xiaomi have strengthened their position on the market, specifically in activity / fitness tracking. The other two segments namely monitoring & diagnostics and wearables for therapy have also attracted several start-ups and SMEs that have developed innovative technologies. Examples of stakeholders in these segments include (indicative list, in no specific order) Atheer, Brain State Technologies, Chrono Therapeutics, dorsaVi, Empatica, Force Impact Technologies, G-Tech Medical, Hexoskin, Hocoma, iSono Health, Lumo Bodytech, Numera, Orpyx and Proteus Digital Health. These companies are expected to foster significant technological advancements in the near future.
4. With more and more people becoming aware about smart wearables, trends on social media platforms have demonstrated the growing popularity. In fact, we were able to capture over 80,000 mentions of relevant keywords on different social media platforms in the last five years. The activity has increased dramatically over the last 2-3 years. The same behaviour was observed on Google Trends.
5. Venture capitalists have strongly backed the innovation. We identified over 180 instances of funding across 70 companies over the last few years. The total amount invested has been close to USD 3.1 billion; of this, USD 2.1 billion came during the last three years alone. This clearly depicts the high interest of venture capital firms and other strategic investors in this area.
6. During the same time, several agreements were inked amongst the stakeholders. We captured over 120 partnerships across product development / integration, distribution / marketing agreement, supply agreements, mergers / acquisitions and others. Over 90 collaborations were signed in the last 3-4 years with product development / integration accounting for 44% of the total agreements. It is fair to state that such collaborations are one of the key enablers that are expected to drive new products in the market over the coming years.
We expect the overall market for smart wearables within the healthcare industry to grow at an annualized rate of 13.6% over the coming 15 years. Relatively higher growth is expected for novel wearables under monitoring & diagnostics and therapy segments. As the market evolves, North America and Europe will continue to be the biggest contributors. These regions are likely to drive the market in the mid to long term before a wider adoption is seen in the emerging markets of India and China (likely to happen as price declines over time).

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