How big tech is changing the future of wellness and health

CES is the annual trade show organised by the Consumer Electronics Association held in Las Vegas.

This year however it was held virtually where people could log in from all around the world to access some of the latest technologies, game changers and innovations on the planet.

This is an important show for innovators because if your product is a game-changer, you can expect big tech companies in the same space to make deals for partnerships where money and product distribution are everything.

You can have the grandest idea but if you don’t have capital for mass scale manufacturing or a way to get it to the end consumer, then your product will just be a product on the top dusty shelf.

I will be covering some of the winners in the digital health space over the next few weeks but first we need to see what the health and wellness trends for 2021 are, and how it is going to impact your life in the near future for the better.

Health and Wellness Trends for 2021

1 Doctors on Demand 

Digital classrooms became every teacher and students’ nightmare in 2020. With all the pain of adapting to figuring out new technology for most users, a blessing came out of it. Parents and students became more tech savvy, pushing South Africa into a first world adoption of technology and mindset. This single act across the world has now opened doors for other technology to flourish and one in particular is “Doctors on Demand”.

Telemedicine is geared to more efficiencies of consultation, less costs to the doctors and patients and most importantly, it is safer and more accessible to the masses. Doctors on Demand virtual company CEO, Hill Ferguson, believes $67 billion will be saved yearly for the health care systems.

More and more patients will in future see their doctors via a cellphone and computer. Picture: iStock

2 Smart Thermometer

Let’s face it, South Africa has been confronted with many “Fong Kong” thermometers where I am sure 80% of the market do not trust the readings. Once you have been given your reading, you are then hopefully given a Covid-free pen to write down your details. Then what? What happens to this data? Quite frankly, nothing.

The company Kinsa is set to change the rules of the game. From a public innovation point of view, Kinsa is a smart thermometer which captures your reading and sends it to an app and if your readings are high, you can be asked to fill out a set of questions pertaining to how you are feeling and what symptoms you are experiencing. Without knowing your actual personal details and metadata, geo-location and symptoms, for example, are accessed via the app to provide a national heat map of potential flu or coronavirus outbreaks.

Almost one million Kinsas have been sold in America to date and the figure keeps growing. This will in turn allow health care systems to prepare better, allocate more health workers and tackle the spread of the problem.

Now, imagine a commercial version of the device where businesses register their thermometer to a national database centre where the entire country can be mapped out effortlessly without actually knowing personal details? Government can then act in essential ways to lock down certain areas to contain the spread of the virus or a new strand of flu or outbreak.

3 All-in-one home health monitoring

My biggest regret is spending money on the latest Apple watch because you would think that buying such a sophisticated watch would get you all the bells and whistles and being able to track your health. Most of the app features, like tracking your ECG, was not available in South Africa until the clever boff at Discovery Health introduced it.

The future lies not in releasing one feature every year to sell a watch, but rather to give the consumer what they need most: everything! Everything to make a better-informed decision.

A company at CES called HD Medical have invented a Tele-Health home monitor which tracks respiratory rate, blood pressure trends, home stethoscope, temperature, pulse oximeter, seven-lead ECG and heart rate. The device was FDA approved last year and is rolling out to the public.

Imagine when you are chatting to your doctor and you can provide him all these vital and accurate readings, that would be a game-changer for the virtual doctors and your health. A once off investment for your home and family is worth a price in gold.

4 To watch out

Another great tech coming is a smart baby lamp called Ainenne which will teach your baby to sleep better through classical conditioning. It creates white noise like gentle ocean waves to help put your baby to sleep and when it is rising time the light gently awakens, making sure your baby gets the right amount of sleep.

Fall Detect can detect that an elderly person has fallen and determine the impact of the fall. The fall detect device is linked to a medical responder in their retirement village, a neighbour or a medical service.

PressureDOT is a revolutionary tiny capsule that you swallow, and it will then measure intra-abdominal pressure, temperature and its 3D location at any time. The data is sent to the doctor for analysis.

Sean van Staden

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