Dive Brief:
- Mobile medical software and data collection company OneLife Technologies has announced a new health-focused watch powered by AT&T's wireless connectivity.
- The open API OnePulse smartwatch tracks heart rate, location, movement and sleep and transmits the information to the cloud, where clinicians, users and caregivers can monitor it.
- Meanwhile, Samsung launched Galaxy Watch Active, its first smartwatch with blood pressuring monitoring.
Dive Insight:
The Rolling Meadows, Illinois, company is the latest to get in on smartwatches and remote monitoring, with help from telecommunications giant AT&T. It faces stiff competition, with Apple and Samsung also active in the space and Fitbit targeting its latest fitness trackers at health and wellness plans.
The newest version of Apple Watch, launched in September, includes an FDA-approved EKG monitor to detect irregular heart rhythms that may suggest atrial fibrillation and alert users, as well as fall detection. The company is reportedly in talks with several private Medicare plans about making the wearable available to seniors to monitor health and fitness.
Beginning March 15, users of Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active can download the My BP Lab app, developed jointly with the University of California-San Francisco, onto the watch to track their blood pressure and physical activities. The device is compatible with both Android and iOS.
Touted as the first medical wearable certified for AT&T's Long Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) low-power wide area network technology, the OnePulse claims to provide near real-time access to patient data in a secured environment.
Among the watch's health-related features are 24/7 monitoring with near real-time alerts, medication reminders and auto prescription refills, fall detection, customizable services for chronic conditions, fully encrypted medical records accessible via a cloud-based dashboard, AI and predictive analytics and open API, enabling to any system, including EHRs.
The product will available for purchase by providers next month.
