Healthcare set for wireless sensor fitness

LONDON: Over the next five years the market for wearable wireless sensors is set to grow to more than 400 million devices by 2014. And the demand will come from the professional healthcare, home healthcare and sports and fitness markets, though these markets will develop at different speeds and will support different applications.

Around the world multiple social factors are putting strain on existing healthcare operations, but a new wave of interest and investment in wireless body sensors will help healthcare providers to improve treatment as well as increase efficiency and cut costs. Key to these benefits is the development of wireless sensors to measure important body parameters and communicate the data to remote systems. These developments are examined in a new study from ABI Research. The sports and fitness market represents more than 90 percent of the market today.

“These are very early days for wearable wireless sensors in the healthcare market, but a number of factors are coming together to support strong growth over the next five years,” says principle analyst Jonathan Collins. “Technology and product development, wireless protocol standardization, and the potential already seen in sports and fitness monitoring will help drive investment in the healthcare market.”

As per the new ABI Research study, “Wearable Wireless Sensors” that examines the factors fuelling demand for wearable wireless sensors; Bluetooth Low Energy, ZigBee, 802.15.4 and proprietary offerings are all under consideration for wearable wireless sensor systems and the industry is keen to turn to standardized products wherever possible.