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WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY


PORTABLE HEALTH I


n May of this year, Credit Suisse analysts advised their investment clients of “the next big thing”, and it wasn’t an innovative new drug


or social network platform – it was wearable technology. From the music business to


hospitality, new technologies are disrupting a long list of industries. With Google Glass, I-Watch, the Nike Fuel Band and a host of other wearable technologies coming to market, one wonders how these could advance or hinder health club business models. Current global revenues of US$3–$5bn


are set to explode to more than US$50bn in the area of wearable tech over the next three to fi ve years – and some think that’s a conservative outlook. Research fi rm ON World recently


released its mobile health and wellness sensor reports which predicted that, in 2017, 515 million sensors for wearable, implantable or mobile health and fi tness devices will be shipped globally, up from 107 million in 2012. ON World estimates that, by 2017, wearables will make up 80 per cent of the “mobile sensing


HOW COULD WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES IMPACT THE HEALTH CLUB BUSINESS? BRYAN O’ROURKE SHARES HIS VIEWS ON THE POSSIBILITIES OFFERED BY THE LATEST TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS


health and fi tness device” market. That fi gure includes smart watches, which it believes 48 per cent of consumers will primarily use for health and fi tness (see http://lei.sr?a=H8g5r) Meanwhile a new report from Juniper


Research suggests that health and fi tness devices will make up half of all wireless accessories shipped by 2018 (see http:// lei.sr?a=0l1h4) While these numbers may seem


outrageous, consider this: CISCO forecasts that, by the end of 2013, the number of internet-connected mobile devices will actually exceed the human population. In Hong Kong alone, the average person has two smartphone devices, yet the modern smartphone trend emerged only fi ve years ago. And in the US today, more than 35 million


The Quantifi ed Self trend has evolved off the back of a surge in health monitoring devices


people are using health tracking devices. It’s not unreasonable to think that this trend is just getting started.


A new healthcare model So what does this mean for health clubs? The implications are unclear, but in a world where the cost of traditional ‘sick care’ is unsustainable, the paradigm of preventative and ‘do it yourself’ patient care is increasingly relevant. While traditionally the health club industry has largely catered to already fit enthusiasts, the opportunity to capture the much larger and growing sedentary market is being made more viable through these new wearable devices, with the proven idea that lifestyle management is the best means of driving down healthcare costs. In his controversial book, The Creative


Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care, Dr Eric Topol sets out a construct of the future of healthcare. According to Topol, putting important health data in patients’ hands is key to bringing about a digital health revolution. During a recent speech, the doctor


said: “There are more than a billion pre-diabetics on the planet, and we have warned them not to become diabetic. What if they could get their glucose every fi ve minutes just for a week, and learn what are the foods and the lifestyle choices that are putting their pancreas into a high-gear mode we want to avoid? Wouldn’t that be a great education for that individual, because each one has his own environment, own nutrition?” Topol is right: primary prevention is


key to enhancing the quality of life for billions of people by avoiding chronic disease in the fi rst place. Increasingly


68 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital September 2013 © Cybertrek 2013


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