Yet another tech giant has entered the mHealth arena, and some experts are saying this could herald a step in the right direction for acceptance and adoption of wearables by the provider community.
Like Apple before it, the Microsoft Band wrist-worn fitness device and accompanying Microsoft Health online platform mark an evolutionary step in wearables for two primary reasons: (1) the Microsoft name is well-known, giving its products a decent chance at strong consumer adoption, and (2) the platform promises to be interoperable, giving users and their healthcare networks more access to a wide range of data. The company already works with niche vendors Jawbone, MapMyFitness and RunKeeper, its cloud computing capabilities are well known, and the app will be able to run not only on Microsoft's own Windows phone, but also Apple and Android smartphones.
“We don’t think there’s any other device with this level of functionality,” Yusuf Mehdi, a corporate vice president for devices and studios, told the New York Times during a recent demonstration of the device on Microsoft’s Redmond, WA campus.
The black rubber band, which is already available through the web and retail stores, boasts the standard health and fitness trackers, including heart rate, sleep patterns and calories burned, and it will display cellphone text messages, Facebook posts and even a bar code scanner, allowing users to buy products like Starbucks coffee. It also features a GPS tracker, and is being marketed at $199, well below Apple's $349 Watch and FitBit's $250 Surge, both due out early next year.
With more than a dozen similar devices now on the market or planned for release soon (including high-end, fashionable bracelets and at least one wristband designed by a music producer and artist), the so-called "race to the wrist" is in a full frenzy. But Rick Hu, CEO of Vivametrica, a Calgary-based developer of mHealth tools, feels the healthcare industry isn't really paying attention to the devices themselves. They're watching for the software.
"There's always going to be a hardware race … but I suspect (mHealth advocates) are already looking toward version 2," he told mHealth News. That's where the true innovators will take elements that have caught the public's eye and marry them with software that has healthcare's attention.
"The consumer market is very interested right now, and (Microsoft) has thought a little bit more about the interactions and the way that people might use it," Hu said.
According to the Times article, Microsoft is saying all the right things and showing off the right tools and toys, but it still has a ways to go to jump to the front of the crowded wearables market – a market that may be fascinating to consumers, but is still facing skepticism from the healthcare community.
For one, the Microsoft Band's heart rate monitor has to prove to be accurate, something that hasn't been proven in other devices now on the market. Second – and most important – the Band and its corresponding online platform have to give healthcare providers data they want and need to make effective clinical decisions.
And they have to be more than a fad.
"While there has been great curiosity from consumers about wearable technologies, many people seem to lose interest in them once the novelty wears off," The Times article points out. "In a recent survey, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that about a third of respondents who purchased a wearable device more than a year ago now say they no longer use it or do so infrequently."
Hu agrees, saying these devices "have to be prettier" to appeal to the casual consumer – as opposed to the fitness fanatic who's going to buy and use them no matter what. "They have to be worn and used by everyone, regardless of the technology," he said, "but they also have to provide quality data."
Hu feels the mHealth market "needs a few more steps" in wearable development before consumers really jump in. The right device, he said, not only needs to be attractive to the consumer, but must be easy to use and allow for easy access to data. In addition, healthcare executives are going to want to see case studies that prove the value of wearables in affecting a provider's clinical decisions.
"When we get that, it's going to be like someone just launched a rocket to the moon,' he said.
And one more thing: Will they be able to connect to the electronic medical record? To Hu, that's a whole new battleground to cross.
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