7 #HealthTech Trends from #CES

2017

This presentation distils some of the technology & gadgets on show at CES 2017 into 7 distinct Health Tech Trends.

While none of these are new to CES at least compared to the previous 2 years I have visited, they are growing rapidly and have potential to impact the health sector

The 7 Tech Trends

1. Sleep2. FemTech3. Mental Wellbeing4. Helpful Robots5. Self Management6. Evolving Wearables7. Beauty

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1. Sleep

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1. SleepA cat pic and the topic of sleep, pretty boring start to a Slideshare yeah? Well if you are falling asleep while reading this I won’t take it personally. According to the largest ever consumer study released at CES there is a 79% chance you are sleep deprived so that’s most likely the reason.

SleepScore Labs reported some of the following eye opening facts from over 1.5 million nights of good old American sleep

• Those 79% I mentioned get less than the recommended 7 hours sleep• Men average 5hr 45m & women 6hr 9m per night• 30 mins of exercise can increase sleep time by 14 mins• The right mattress can give you another 20 minsMore study results & an infographic

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Image via Sleepnumber.com

The Sleep Number Smart Bed

Sleep Number have an award winning solution for that sleep deprivation you probably have. Their bed adapts to you and your partners needs to ensure maximum comfort. It even warms your toes to help you fall asleep and raises your side of the bed if you start to snore (the positional therapy helps you and your partner)

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The 2Breathe Sleep Inducer

If you don’t fancy buying that bed or the toe warming thing isn’t getting you off to the land of nod rapidly enough then here is another solution

The 2 Breathe device syncs up your breath via the belly band to some chill music, gradually slowing it down until the Sandman pays you a visit

Photo credit: cnet.com / Josh Miller

2. FemTech

2. FemTechTechnology aimed at females is increasing rapidly and CES was no exception. A number of solutions related to fertility, pregnancy and child care. The market is skyrocketing particularly around fertility with the huge costs of medical treatment. See the next examples.

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Willow Pump

Willow is a wearable breast pump that lives unobtrusively in a bra and can collect milk all day with minimal hassle. An app even records how much milk has been collected

Image via willowpump.com

Pain ReliefBloomlife Contraction Tracker

Bloomlife have created a ‘smart’ tracker to measure a pregnant woman’s contractions, monitor these over time and display on an app

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Ava Fertility Bracelet

Ava is a fertility bracelet that claims to be clinically proven in predicting the beginning of a woman’s ‘fertility window’ As well as giving insights into her cycle it also tracks various wellbeing indicators such as stress

Images via avawomen.com

3. Mental Wellbeing

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Doppel Mood Wearable

What is the point being told you are in a shitty mood. You or someone close to you probably had that figured out. The Doppel claims to automatically alter your mood for the better before that happens. It works by emitting a pulse like rhythm that signals your brain to become more calm or alert depending on your momentary preference

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Hyundai Health & Mobility Cockpit

Instead of a wearable how about leaving your ’mood optimization’ to your car. The idea is similar to the Doppel wearable. It detects passengers’ (and driver’s particularly) mood and intervenes. If it senses high stress levels it calms the driver or a lack of concentration it provides an ‘alert burst’ It uses a bunch of environmental factors such as sounds, temperature, aromas & (mood?) lighting to do this

Photo credit: Carscoops.com

Pain ReliefLifeQ and medibio partnership

And in terms of the longer term, this partnership based platform brings together data from wrist worn wearables and delivers insights to consumers to help manage their stress on an ongoing basis. The platform uses an algorithm that can interpret movement and behavioral data from ’traditional’ fitness wearables to assess mental health.

4. Helpful Robots

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Friendly Robots

Helpful Robots

An array of robots were on display and interacting at CES. Pepper whom I met at SXSW 2016 is marketed as a human helper, not specifically for health but there is a big potential for home care and ‘robotic-assisted-living’ The Lynx robot has full Amazon Alexa integration so can easily be commanded.

Pictured Kuri from Mayfield Robotics

5. Self Management

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RAPAEL Smart Glove

The Rapael glove allows patients to rehabilitate themselves from wrist or hand injuries. Accompanying technology and games combine efficacy and entertainment. This is indicative of the movement towards greater patient self management in the home.

Photo credit: UPI.com / Molly Riley

Pain ReliefQardio Wearable ECG Monitor

ECGs used to be under the strict purview of the doctor. It was cumbersome for a patient to be fitted with a tape, lots of sticky pads and the data usually collected in a short range i.e. 24hrs to 7 days. This device gives the power to the patient, an easy to wear ECG device that needs no sticky electrodes, data can be collected at will and shared with a physician

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Diabetes AI

DIABNEXT®

Artificial intelligence meets diabetes. Data around insulin injections, oral therapy, meals & diet, blood insulin levels and even genetic profiling can be combined to give a holistic view of the patient. This data can be used to deliver predictions and insights.

6. Evolving WearablesSmart Ring

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Smart Ring

Motiv Ring Tracker

A ring as a fitness tracker may not be a new concept but Motiv have bundled the sensors you would find on a typical wrist tracker into this smart little device, including optical heart rate tracking.

Photo credit: Techcrunch.com

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United FitBits

United Healthcare are offering a FitBit charge as part of an incentivized employee wellness program. Ok they are not the first to incentivize wellness (I’m thinking Oscar and Walgreens balance rewards) but it is another example of the trend towards giving people the tools and motivation to stay well.

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VR & Fitness

Virtual Exercise

VirZOOM combine Virtual Reality with FitBits and a traditional exercise bike. Why go to the gym when you can go anywhere in the universe. The Fitbit measures and the VR motivates. This is an increasing trend of technologies and devices merging and becoming more integrated.

Photo credit: Techcrunch.com

7. Beauty

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Hairmax LaserBand

The Hairmax LaserBand claims to stimulate those hair follicles into regrowth mode via lasers. Yet another example of the clinic being brought to the consumer.

Photo credit: TheSun.co.uk

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Hi Mirror

Hi there hot stuff

Moving down from your hair the Hi Mirror analyses your skins condition for blemishes, spots and wrinkles and even gives you a score. Ouch! This is tracked over time and the impact of any ‘interventions’ such as skin care regimens or beauty treatments can be objectively measured

Photo credit: TheSun.co.uk

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The first AI toothbrush

It may seem like technology overkill and this did make it pretty high up on some of the ‘ridiculous lists’ of CES 2017 Tech. The smart brush gives adults insights into how there are brushing their teeth, time spent, focus areas and over brushing that may lead to gum recession. Is this a pointless use of technology or an indication that literally everything we use will have sensors that can give us data driven insights and optimize seemingly trivial aspects of our lives?

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Quantified Hair

This beauty product, spawned by L'Oréal and Withings attracted much derision and ridicule online. (More than the toothbrush) Basically it measures how you brush your hair and helps you optimize brushing as well as sensors to measure hair health. Regardless of whether this particular product turns out to be a dud or not there is no denying the combination of beauty + technology is growing exponentially

Photo credit: AP /John Locher

So 7 areas, lots of shiny gadgets, some will doubtless end up being recycled within 6-12 months. Importantly we are seeing wearables for various different parts of the body and an increase in off body sensors with greater integration between devices and use of the data and machine learning to give us insights. I predict these trends will increase as individual products and use cases live or die.

Thank you

@garymonk+1-917-689-6053

linkedin.com/in/garywmonk