MedTech trends: Predicting the next wearable success story

As technology and medical care continue their mutally symbiotic relationship, wearable tech is advancing, delivering enhanced functionality, improved user experiences, and a range of tangible health monitoring benefits.

With the emergence of MedTech into the global consumer space, companies are responding by offering advanced, user-friendly technologies that bridge the gap between medical devices and everyday wellness tools. Apple’s Series 8 Watch, for example, not only tracks heart rate and activity, but also features an FDA-cleared ECG app that can detect signs of atrial fibrillation.

Meanwhile, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) represent the largest and fastest growing segment in wearables, and these are no longer only used by patients with diabetes.

CGMs are designed to provide continuous, real-time glucose readings, allowing users to see both their current glucose levels and historical trends, and to recognise patterns in their glucose levels, enabling proactive management. CGMs also alert users when their glucose levels approach abnormal highs or lows, facilitating timely interventions that can prevent severe hypoglycaemic or hyperglycaemic events.

So, with devices like smart watches and CGMs already proving impactful and popular amongst patients and health and wellness enthusiasts, will anything replicate the success of these devices in the medical sector?  

Four wearable tech frontrunners are emerging

1. Hearables

Hearables represent a powerful new wearable tech segment that is both unobtrusive for the user while delivering multiple health tracking benefits. Using biosignal monitoring, these devices act in a similar manner to a wristwatch, tracking heart rate, body temperature, respiration rate, blood pressure, and other signals.

They are naturally smaller in size and designed to be fitted snugly in the ear, where their closer proximity to the heart and brain may improve the accuracy of their signals. From hearing improvement assistance to vagus nerve stimulation for mental health therapeutics, further potential uses and benefits of hearables beyond health tracking continue to emerge and expand.

2. Wearable biosensors

Wearable biosensors are another piece of non-invasive medical technology that is growing in popularity, with stress, metabolic metrics, and hydration three of the most critical biometrics that these devices can now measure.

Attached to the skin via a flexible adhesive, advanced sensor technologies are used to monitor sweat, an important biofluid, analysing biomarkers like electrolytes, cortisol, glucose, and lactate in real-time.

These wearables are designed to be thin, comfortable, and discrete, using flexible and stretchable materials that move with the body. Miniaturised lithium-ion batteries are often used for power supply, though there is potential to deploy energy-harvesting technologies that harness body heat, motion, or ambient light for energy, possibly allowing sensors to operate for longer periods.

Though primarily used by elite athletes today, could these biosensors become the next major wearable segment for chronic disease management, clinical diagnostics and general health monitoring?

3. Smart rings

Smart rings continue to gain traction as a popular device for ongoing health monitoring. One FDA-approved device includes the increasingly popular ‘Happy Ring’, which can now support at-home diagnosis of sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnoea.

In fact, the Happy Ring is currently the only FDA-approved device which combines multinight sleep testing with around-the-clock health monitoring in a single wearable device. Users can initiate a sleep test via the Happy Sleep platform, reviewing the results and discussing potential treatment plans with a sleep physician via a telehealth consulation.

For users, the wholistic nature of smart rings, added to their simplicity in form factor, make them one of the more fast growing markets for wearable tech.  

4. Wearable neurotech

Used for both chronic health management and mobility improvement, wearable neurotech units are emerging as a powerful piece of medical technology.

In the form of head-mounted gear, wearable neurotech includes therapeutic medical devices that can apply external brain stimulation, essentially working through the skin and skull to deliver low-level electrical currents, magnetic fields, or mechanical pulses to alter brain activity. These techniques could be used to treat a range of diseases such as depression, anxiety, and Parkinson’s. Meanwhile, the integriation of AI in such devices is paving the way for more personalised solutions.

Neurotech devices are also being designed in the form of smart clothing, such as the FDA-approved Neural Sleeve. The Neural Sleeve uses AI-powered smart sensors to stimulate muscles, helping individuals with conditions like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s restore muscle movement and improve gait.

The future is bright

Wearable innovation is advancing rapidly, empowering individuals to take control of their health while also opening promising new avenues for accessible, non-invasive therapeutics and diagnostics.

As innovation expands, reliable electroconductive materials are essential, but these must also possess important properties to deem them suitable for medical device manufacturing. These properties include biocompatibility, processability, and comfort for the patient, since wearables often sit directly on the skin and are worn for extended periods of time.

With the recent introduction of electrically conductive silicones such as Elkem’s Silbione™ LSR EC 70, the barriers to processing and retaining good properties were addressed through incorporation of carbon nanotubes. Consequently, possibilities for designing smaller, more precise and flexible electrodes and sensors are now feasible and within reach.