The market for wearables—the digital devices that track everything from blood pressure and glucose levels to a person's daily steps and skin temperature—is exploding. Researchers at IDTechEx predict sales of wearable technologies will more than triple to $70 billion in 2025, with most of that growth coming from the healthcare sector.
But the current generation of wearable medical devices fails on several fronts. They tend to be bulky, boxy and more like wearing a small machine than something that works with your body. And the data typically aren't transmitted directly to the healthcare provider.
Lexington, Mass.-based technology company MC10 aims to change that by redesigning monitoring devices to be more wearable, accurate and even customizable.
It has piloted its BioStamp Research Connect System with dozens of companies and research institutions and now looks to move into the broader market.
The BioStamp is small, thin and flexible, and can be worn on multiple sites on the body. MC10's device and accompanying software allows researchers to customize the information they collect, whether it is someone's stride rate or the electrical activity of the heart or motor neurons.
For physicians, the device can chart a patient's rehabilitation after an orthopedic procedure such as a total knee or hip replacement by measuring the individual's gait, range of motion and cadence against his or her preoperative baseline.