Chapter 14 - Evolution Map of Wearable Technology Patents for Healthcare Field

Abstract

Wearable technology comprises all products that can be worn on a user’s body to integrate computing with their daily tasks and activities. The technology includes a wide range of devices and applications that help in collecting and displaying real-time health, motion, and other sensory data. From the business side it can be said that, wearable technology has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments in the high-tech market. Increasing with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6%, the sales of wearable devices are expected to reach around 155.7 million units in 2019. Wearable technology patents for application in the fields of healthcare and medical devices have the highest number of patent filings, followed garments/body wear. For consumers the interest in quantifying, monitoring, and improving health metrics has translated into a huge demand for fitness trackers and smart watches. Hence the aim of the study is to understand the evolution and dispersion of wearable technology patents in medical field and identify the future trend. Patent analysis will be used as methodology and scenario development is utilized for future projection. Finally, it can be asserted that ideas registered in the field of wearable health technologies are concentrated in the framework of methods and techniques (A61B) and methods of diagnosis. This can be interpreted as an increase in the need to diagnose human health with real-time healthcare follow-up. Depending on the Internet of Things it is obvious that the system architecture and the information architecture that are needed for the wearable health technologies to work harmoniously. The integration is the key issue to work wearable health technologies in an interoperable way.