Devices & Diagnostics, Health IT, Startups

And the Wearables Championship for healthcare technology goes to: ZOLL Medical

Life Vest by ZOLL Medical has walked away with the Wearables Championship for healthcare technology […]

Life Vest by ZOLL Medical has walked away with the Wearables Championship for healthcare technology over Reemo by Playtabase. The matchup of 16 healthcare-focused wearable technologies and at least once concept stretched from eyeglasses to treat color blindness to gait analysis for various conditions, such as diabetic neuropathy. People with the condition have an increased risk of falling.

So why Life Vest? It came down to wearables technology that’s available and FDA cleared and Reemo, a gesture detection device that’s still in the early stages of development. Life Vest responds to some of the estimated 920,000 people expected to suffer a heart attack.

According to TechNavio, the use of gesture recognition technologies for healthcare applications is currently focused in physical therapy when gaming is recommended after major surgery to prevent muscle atrophy.

“For patients in general (not specific to individuals recovering from a stroke), gesture recognition-enabled games have often been suggested to patients to keep them active for faster physical recovery. Further to this, the ability to engage in physical recovery from the comfort of their room without any chance of physical injuries which could normally take place in an external environment is a key driver for the use of gesture recognition.”

The company also estimates that the value of the medical technology wearables market will rise to $8 billion by 2016. Although I picked wearable technology for this Sweet 16 tourney,  we did a mobile app matchup last year. Why the change? Although it has the disadvantage of generally being at an earlier stage of development than mobile apps for healthcare, it has been an area of healthcare that’s offered some exciting innovations.  What’s been particularly interesting is seeing how much of this healthcare technology is about helping people overcome limitations and, in some case, even save lives.

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