A lot of my job is working with wearables in one way or another: wearing them, reading about them, using their data. Sometimes I can lose sight of what’s going on though while I get lost in the particulars of a specific project, or the mundanities of the work week. So, in an attempt to keep current, I present to you (me) – Wearables Weekly.

I suspect a lot of this will be along the lines of “Google this,” “Apple that.” Once upon a time, I’d put Fitbit at the front of that list, but Google bought Fitbit this past month! However, importantly, this is to keep an eye on other big players in the game, such as Samsung, Facebook, Sony, and Microsoft, as well as more esoteric players focused on robotic surgery, fashion, and so on.

In that spirit, a Nov 18th article lists the top tech companies for healthcare wearables as:

• Apple
• Facebook
• Fitbit
• Garmin
• Google (Alphabet)
• HTC
• Huawei
• Microsoft
• Qualcomm
• Samsung
• Sony
• Vuzix
• Xiaomi

Not on this list, but also on my radar include:

• IBM
• Medtronics
• GE
• Philips
• Siemens
• Roche

Apple

Apple is obviously a big player in the wristwatch space with its Apple Watch, but it is also a dominant force in the hearables market, which is the buzzword for devices like Apple’s AirPods, which serve as traditional headphones, yet go beyond with capabilities such as heart rate tracking, brain wave monitoring, and hearing enhancement. They are also working on some smart glasses called – drum roll, please – Apple Glasses.

Facebook

Facebook has Occulus, which puts Facebook in the landscape of VR headsets. This technology could likely be repurposed for smart glasses as well, though the headset itself is definitely not such a thing as is. Facebook has also supported research looking into tactile communication – that is, using vibrations on a device, such as a wristwatch, to transmit messages (e.g., “Hi honey, when will you be home for dinner?!”). You can learn more about that stuff in some of their published research:

• 2018: Chen et al: Feeling Speech on the Arm
• 2018: Zhao et al: Coding Tactile Symbols for Phonemic Communication

Google

As for Fitbit, we’ll just jump straight into Google/Alphabet. First things first: Google is clearly in the smartwatch/wristwatch space having acquired Fitbit, but they were actually already in this space with Verily. Also, there has been talk about Google’s Pixel Watch for a long time, but no release – at least, not in name. There is a whole line of smart watches running Wear OS. Apparently, Google did not think the watches were quality enough to braned them as “Pixel Watches,” but that Wear OS was good enough to release in LG products. People never stoppped talking about Pixel though: will it come about through their their work with Verily, or will a “Pixel Watch” now come about through ownership of Fitbit? Who knows: point is, they are definitely in the watch space. They also have dipped into the glasses universe a while back with Google Glass. Importantly, one of Google’s smarter moves parallels releasing the Android OS for smart phones – an OS for wearables, mentioned above, called Wear OS. Of course, Apple has watchOS, but that parallels iOS: Apple for Apple’s sake. As with Android, its Google’s Wear OS that is being adopted by 3rd party manufacturers.

Microsoft

• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/mtl/wearables.aspx
• https://www.wareable.com/wearable-tech/microsoft-wearable-health-sensor-patent-details-7438
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Band
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens
• https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-surface-smart-fabric-patent/
• https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-patents-advanced-multi-dimensional-sensor-device-for-wearables/

IBM

• https://www.research.ibm.com/haifa/dept/services/wearable.shtml
• https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/O50QV9NK
• https://www.wearable-technologies.com/2019/03/ibm-watson-wants-to-use-wearable-devices-to-improve-worker-safety/
• https://www.ibm.com/blogs/client-voices/bragi-watson-iot-computing-ears/
• https://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_group.php?id=10003

Siemens

• https://constructionmaguk.co.uk/siemens-the-dark-side-of-wearables-and-wellbeing/
• https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/press-room/press-releases/pr-20180306009hc.html
• https://www.signiausa.com/blog/signia-primax-smart-hearing-aids/
• https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/en-us/

Roche

• https://www.smartbrief.com/s/2017/02/roche-use-wearable-sensors-monitor-infants-clinical-trial
• https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/drugs-and-data_inside-roche–taking-on-the-tech-sector/45345154

Extra Credit: Robotics Companies

• Intuitive, which came about after a DARPA project,
• VERB Surgical, which arose from JHU and Google
• Medtronic
• CMR
• Titan
• Senhance

Extra Credit: EHR Companies

I heard about these guys at the Ai4 Healthcare conference. They are actually EHR companies, but wearables taking the stage in healthcare means that any EHR company is also in the business of getting a grip on wearables (standardization, etc).

Here is a relevant article:

• 2019: Dinh-Le et al: Wearable Health Technology and Electronic Health Record Integration: Scoping Review and Future Directions

Cerner

Here are some articles from their website focused on wearables:

• https://www.cerner.com/blog/why-wearable-technology-might-be-a-game-changer-for-improving-health-outcomes
• https://www.cerner.com/blog/wearable-devices-improving-clinical-outcomes

Epic

Short and sweet: Epic owns 50% of the EHR market. Seems like there are rumors that they could partner with Apple, or be acquried by Apple…

• https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/cramer-if-apple-doesnt-buy-epic-systems-heres-what-it-could-do.html

Allscripts

There are rumors about Epic and Apple, but actual dealings between Allscripts and Apple:

• https://www.allscripts.com/newsroom/apple-health-records-available-for-allscripts-clients/
• https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/north-america/apple-health-records-comes-certain-allscripts-ehr-suites

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Some reads of the week:

• https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/aha-janssen-drops-clinical-sites-for-smartphones-wearables-100-virtual-invokana-study
• https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/diagnostics/this-new-ai-system-can-predict-seizures-with-nearperfect-accuracy
• https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/comment/top-tech-healthcare-wearables/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/11/20/wearables-and-hearables-increasingly-have-a-role-in-patient-treatment-plans/#31b9e79110b0
• https://interestingengineering.com/smart-clothing-is-the-future-of-the-wearables-industry
• https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2019/10/17/proprio-quadro-rtx/

Some older reads worth putting in this first installment:

• https://www.wareable.com/health-and-wellbeing/health-tech-startups-to-look-out-for-2019-7362