Dive Brief:
- At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Fitbit showed it's betting on software going forward via new apps and updates to its wearables, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- WSJ's Georgia Wells notes the bet on software hopes to keep individuals engaged with the company's products.
- Home health monitors are getting attention this year at the show; they can perform a variety of functions, such as monitoring a home’s indoor air quality, Forbes reported.
Dive Insight:
Digital health is an incredibly broad category, and plenty of companies are looking to fill the space with smart gadgets. After all, consumers are embracing digital health tools, a trend that is most obvious when looking at telemedicine. Millions of American patients have gotten medical care remotely, and telemedicine is a service that people increasingly desire and even expect.
But when it comes to digital health devices, what will catch on?
It’s estimated that nearly a third of the people who have purchased fitness trackers have stopped using them, a sobering trend for makers of wristband fitness tracking technologies. An alternative approach could be hands-off, with consumers using products like Resmed’s sleep tracker, which operates without actually touching the user. At the other end of the spectrum, products that are even closer to the user (and hidden in plain sight) have been introduced, such as smart shirts and shoes.
Amazon’s Alexa is gaining popularity, and the potential is there to use it in conjunction with digital health products. Partnerships between digital health companies, health plans, care providers and corporate entities like Amazon could help users integrate their digital health devices more seamlessly into their routines and drive innovation.