PwC report tackles implications for providers on growth in consumer wearables adoption
A recent article by Healthcare Informatics discusses a PwC report (May 12), which presented implications for wearables providers in the healthcare industry following an explosion of consumer adoption of such devices. The article’s author, Mark Hagland, speaks with Vaugh Kaufmann of PwC to discuss the implications for the healthcare industry and for providers of wearables.
The PwC study drew conclusions from the findings of an online survey in March 2016, with a sample size of 1000 respondents. Gartner estimates that “by 2018, 2 million US employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment”.
The PwC report contains a large amount of statistics, including the percentage of wearable devices consumers are planning to buy in the next 12 months, with the distribution as follows:
- 57% fitness bands
- 53% smart watches
- 50% smart video or other photo device
- 41% smart glasses
- 38% smart clothing
The rate of adoption has increased in the past two years, which Kauffman attributes to an increase in the number of companies offering devices and better integration with smart phones and other devices. Wearables may provide patient engagement in tracking and monitoring their own healthcare. The report touches on risk management around tracking data from patients and how that data will be used. One compelling advantage for healthcare providers is the reduced cost of patient-doctor interaction.
The article touches upon implications for physicians working in the healthcare industry, including the process of incorporating the data. The implications for IT leaders in terms of producing ecosystems of data are explored. One of the conclusions is that the consumer continues to outpace the industry in terms of willingness to adopt and the burden is on the healthcare industry to figure out how to leverage this.