Report forecasts increase in wearable tech and diagnostics

Market intelligence company IDTechEx forecasts there to be strong growth in technologies that help healthcare providers manage the growing burden on the healthcare system while maintaining high quality care. 

In IDTechEx’s new report, “Cardiovascular Disease 2020 – 2030”, wearables such as smart clothing and electronic skin patches are covered extensively, and forecasts the wearable market to reach $19.7 billion by 2024. These devices provide medical-grade continuous health monitoring for cardiovascular disease patients and can provide monitoring over longer periods of time compared to traditional devices, allowing doctors to catch events that would previously have been missed. 

While monitoring in consumer electronics has previously focused on fitness applications, companies are now entering the healthcare space. Devices such as smartwatches now broaden the access of continuous monitoring to a much larger audience. Consumers buy these devices for their primary function but benefit from background screening of hard-to-detect diseases such as atrial fibrillation and sleep apnoea. In certain applications, the improvements of smartphone and tablet cameras means that a separate device is not even needed. 

As evidenced by the COVID-19 outbreak there is a need for point-of-care diagnostics in the management of infectious disease outbreaks. IDTechEx forecasts the market for point-of-care biomedical diagnostics to reach $43 billion by 2029. The company identifies molecular diagnostics as the fastest growing segment, and its latest report “Molecular Diagnostics 2020-2030,” it forecasts the market (including but not limited to point-of-care) to reach $20 billion by 2030.