The NHS in the UK is planning a huge consumer wearables push to transform healthcare services.
The UK NHS’ plans to distribute millions of smartwatches and smart rings to enable remote patient monitoring.
It’s all part of a 10-year initiative to modernize healthcare in the UK – and it seems wearables are high on the agenda.
The health service says that these personal devices will assist with remotely tracking blood pressure, glucose monitoring, and the vitals of cancer patients.
The idea is to help patients better manage conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure from home.
Any casual observer of the wearables industry will know that smartwatches for blood pressure monitoring are few and far between. The Huawei Watch D2, which we just reviewed, is one of the best bets out there. But this is a 10-year plan, so there’s plenty of scope for this technology to be incorporated.
Likewise, blood glucose tracking seems a long way off, but many smartwatches — including smart rings such as the Oura Ring 4 and Ultrahuman RIng Air — are incorporating tracking from continuous glucose monitors.
And it’s not all far-flung stuff. Smart rings have already been part of existing successful trials that have seen smart rings offered to cancer patients in Greater Manchester.
As ever, it’s a great idea — but only if the health service can incorporate consumer grade wearables. It will likely require the creation of health dashboards that can securely track consumer data — possibly developed with manufacturers themselves.
There’s plenty of good ideas here, but not much on practical details as yet.
There’s set to be more information about this in the coming weeks and months.
