Diabetes In Control. A free weekly diabetes newsletter for Medical Professionals. News and information for Medical Professionals.
According to an article in the Consumer Electronics Association newsletter this week, the shipments of wearable bands including smart watches and fitness trackers are forecast to exceed more than 17 million units this year. The smart band segment will account for 8 million of those units in 2014 with its shipments reaching more than 23 million units next year and more than 45 million units by 2017. This means that more of your patients will be wearing devices that can monitor their activity, calories, heart rate, blood pressure and sleep quality, and automatically send those values to you. We had the opportunity to see many of these devices at the recent CES in Las Vegas, and next week we will begin publishing our product reviews for you.
These devices may come in handy for helping your patients because both Items #2, High-Intensity Exercise Increases Urge to Eat Healthy and Curbs Appetite, and #8, Decreasing Sedentary Time Reduces T2DM Risk, provide even more evidence of the value of physical activity for improved health.
Even our Product of the Week could soon be a "wearable" and maybe in the future your patients will just put on a shirt that takes an EKG and sends the results straight to you.
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Dave Joffe, Editor-in-chief