Silicon for prevention, cure and care: A technology toolbox of wearables at the dawn of a new health system

Our increasing life expectancy also implies that many of us will be suffering from one or more chronic illnesses during a larger part of our lives. Medical-grade wearables have the grand promise and the largely untapped potential to become a cornerstone technology in the care cycle. For chronic patients, tools are needed that improve the risk stratification, follow-up and management and are able to monitor disease progression and prevent relapse. Aside from the already existing cardiac rhythm monitoring patches (1), studies with emerging wearable sensors are aim to track congestive heart failure (2), sleep apnea and hypertension. In these care-focused devices, quality of sensing comes first, followed by miniaturization and power autonomy. A massive opportunity for wearable sensing concerns behavior change. Frictionless technology, personalized algorithms/feedback and power autonomy are key requirements for widespread user adoption in this space.