Biosensing wearables gaining ground, but need refinement

Biosensing wearables, including activity trackers, smart watches, smart clothing, patches and tattoos, and ingestibles and smart implants, are all the rage—but their success is tempered by the need to improve usability, according to a report by Rock Health, a full-service seed funder.

“[E]xcitement shouldn’t be mistaken for impact. We expect biosensing wearables will need to leverage their consumer learnings and evolve into highly functional and accurate devices in order to gain adoption in the industry,” according to the report.

Rock Health evaluated more than 100 startups and the most recent venture trends, and spoke with many in the industry.

It noted several encouraging signs for biosensing wearables; for example, the activity tracker segment has about 1-2 percent U.S. market penetration, and that wearables overall are expected to grow significantly. Also, Rock Health reported that venture capitalist investment has grown five times since 2011.

The scale and utility of smartphones, in addition to a dramatic shift in healthcare, also has catalyzed the space.

But despite such advancements, wearable products currently on the market fail to engage users over meaningful periods of time, according to the firm. Some conclusions raised:

• The generic marketing language of most devices leaves use cases to the purchaser’s imagination
• Companies struggle marketing a product to both niche and general audiences
• For most activity trackers, the lack of utility and failure of product marketing have made it difficult to scale and meaningfully engage

For biosensing wearables to succeed, Rock Health suggest three areas they must thrive: functionality; reliability and convenience.  

With success in these areas, they have the potential to support the changing models of healthcare delivery, according to the report.

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