Digital Health Solutions are Going Mainstream

Health apps and devices are rapidly growing in number and adoption rates

We're in the early stages of an explosion in digital health products.

One of my Christmas presents was a Fitbit personal fitness monitor. I clip it on my clothes, and it tracks how many steps I take, how many floors I climb, and how many miles I cover on foot. It also estimates calories burned, and provides an "Active Score." The Fitbit also knows my weight goal and my age and height. The always-on device monitors my sleep, so I can see if my nights are restless or restful, and I can see how long I sleep each night (no more tricking myself into believing I got a good 7 hours). My data is collected and wirelessly beamed to my personal Fitbit web dashboard. I can also access my data through a smartphone app. Do I need an app to tell me I am sometimes a slug? Not really, but it has its upside.

Will it motivate me to be more active? Yes. Will it shame me into going to the gym more regularly? Possibly. At the very least, this knowledge may help me make better decisions, such as taking the stairs instead of an elevator, because I want the Fitbit points.

My Fitbit device is clipped on my shell's zipper

People want to know more about their health, and innovative digital products are answering this need. Entrepreneur magazine covered this topic in its December 2012 issue.

Market research firm Parks Associates reports that the digital health technology market will be worth $5.7 billion by 2015--up from $1.7 billion in 2010--with chronic care, wellness and medication management leading the charge.

Digital health products can be used as a preventative aid, and/or for tracking various health conditions, such as diabetic foot ulcers or cardio health. Some products come in the form of apps, others are wearable or ingestible devices, and some are a combination of both. They can track the efficacy of a given treatment or condition 24/7.

Wearable wireless health monitoring devices are growing quickly, especially in the senior in-home care market. This market alone is expected to grow from under 3 million units in 2011 to 36 million by 2017 (ABI Research).

Over the next decade, chances are you will wear, swallow, or have inserted, some kind of device that will monitor one or more aspects of your health. Collecting data and sending it to the cloud could eventually affect everything from prevention to early warning systems to disease management to insurance coverage. I'll forgo the debate about Big Brother for another post.