For years we have witnessed the incorporation of smart watches and bracelets to monitor our movements, exercise, sleep quality, burning calories, etc. A recent study shows that the sales of wearables have tripled so far this year. But their functions were oriented to our daily activity. The sensors used are relatively conventional: pedometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitor, ..

But a new batch of bracelets and watches with new and revolutionary Smart sensors is being prepared, and initially would not have a daily or functional utility for most users, but for certain groups. Some of these would be the temperature, measuring the electrical conductivity of the skin (Electrodermal activity (EDA)) useful for detecting stress or even epilepsy. Possibly in future versions of the Apple Watch, Will we see in December 2016? Before that? Will a glucose meter model be made, made of graphene? Also Google, its most secret department, “Google X”, is developing its own SmartWatch that will feature solar exposure and noise levels. Samsung and the Simband system, aimed primarily to medical research.

The new ehealth bracelets allow us to go further ahead with their patient monitoring and biometric measurements; this is a breakthrough and opens a path to explore in the world of health. These new wearables also have SDKs that allows the developers of medical platforms to integrate them quickly and effectively harnessing their full potential and adapt them to the needs of each medical center.

From Zerintia we have already started to work as partners with Angel Sensor, Samsung platform or Apple HealthKit. Developing a device adapted to this environment and focused on medical solutions for the following scenarios:

– Monitoring of hospitalized patients: Once configured to the user, if their heart rate, temperature, movements such as twitching or restlessness happen,.. an alarm is sent to the plant personnel. Besides these bracelets could replace the current ones which have barcodes as it could be reflected in them.

– Patients discharged: After an operation or a period of convalescence they are sent home, and don’t have the support or supervision of a relative, requiring a monitoring of the early days in case they develop an infection or complication.

All this will also be enriched by new platforms and frameworks storage and use of data (Big Data) that the leading technology brands are offering:

– Microsoft’s Health Platform: A collection of best practices and guidelines to build fast, safe and effective e-Health solutions.

– SAMSUNG – Digital Health Initiative: Technology platform that blends hardware, SIMBAND sensors bracelets along with the platform of data storage in the cloud: SAMI.

– Apple: HealthKit is a framework and important part of iOS8 and is the first step to get the most potential out of Apple Watch. It provides a centralized, coordinated and secure health information datastore. HealthKit works with third-party apps and gives users control over information sharing.

ResearchKit is an open source framework that enables researchers and developers to create Apps for medical research. Its potential lies in its ease of use, real-time tasks, variety of customized surveys, and the possibility of sharing with the scientific community.

– Philips digital HealthSuite platform: A connection platform between patients, medical technicians and medical providers. Bringing health beyond hospital walls, in our homes and in our daily routine. HealthSuite, is an agreement with Salesforce to provide an open platform, cloud, connectors and APIs that allow medical records and analyze data from multiple devices and resources.

This new and wearable now silent revolution will become effective in the coming months and like conventional wearables bracelets, begin to form part of ecosystem health, ehealth and scientific research. Improving measurements, more realistically, in real time and with minimal impact on patients.

In Zerintia, we continue to innovate in order to improve people’s health.