Molex Releases Global Survey Results on Current State of Wearable Diagnostics and Future of Healthcare Monitoring

Molex Releases Global Survey Results on Current State of Wearable Diagnostics and Future of Healthcare Monitoring 

• 61% of respondents said patients and consumers are the top advocates for wearable diagnostics, while 47% said physicians and medical professionals are driving adoption

• Regulatory approval for medical use is the primary barrier to adoption, along with the need for more effective data from existing health trackers

• Five design challenges: cost, durability, power, miniaturization, and data acquisition

• Energy harvesting holds promise for powering wearables, but requires time and innovation

Lisle, IL – September 29, 2022 – Molex, a global electronics leader and connectivity innovator, announced the results of a global survey of design engineering practitioners to identify market drivers influencing the development of wearable diagnostic devices. Wearable diagnostic devices enable patients, caregivers and consumers to monitor and analyze health data. Respondents said consumers have high expectations for the use and innovation of wearable devices in sports and fitness, health and medical monitoring applications. The survey results also identify regulatory, technical and adoption barriers that must be cleared to drive improvements in wearable devices for health, fitness and medical monitoring, making them smaller and more powerful. 

“The entire wearable diagnostics space is converging as medical device companies and technology innovators work to bring industry-changing products to market,” said Tyson Masar, global medical director, Molex. “Emerging applications present new requirements, which is why it’s critical for design engineers to understand the needs of all stakeholders and how those requirements impact decisions made throughout the product lifecycle, from early device design concepts to large-scale commercialization.”

Molex and Avnet commissioned Dimensional Research to conduct the Wearable Diagnostics: The Future of Healthcare Monitoring global survey in August 2022, which surveyed 603 qualified individuals responsible for engineering design of wearable diagnostic devices. The survey asked a variety of questions to understand the pace of product adoption and the impact of the growing ecosystem of advocates, while also assessing the challenges and trade-offs that are hindering product delivery.

The publicity and acceptance continue to increase

A growing number of advocates encourage the use of wearable diagnostic devices, led by patients and consumers (61%), physicians and other healthcare professionals (47%), and family caregivers (44%). Not surprisingly, insurance companies, some physicians and other healthcare professionals, and medical technologists remain hesitant or opposed. 

However, design engineers say that within the next five years, consumers can expect to directly adopt devices that support obesity management (61%), posture sensing and correction (59%), respiratory disease detection (51%), reproductive health monitoring (50%), and infectious disease monitoring (49%). New medical wearable devices expected to be launched within five years include diabetes tracking devices, sleep monitoring devices, gait analysis devices, CT mobile devices, and genetic abnormality and vision loss detection devices.

Ongoing design challenges 

Despite their optimism about the future, nearly all respondents cited design challenges, such as consumer expectations for ease of use (42%), the need for simple user interfaces and complete documentation (41%), design difficulties in uncontrolled home care environments (40%), and the complexity of the regulatory approval process (34%). Other areas that hinder the design process include cost (38%), durability (37%), power (35%), miniaturization (33%), data collection (30%), and connectivity (30%). In fact, three-quarters of respondents said that connectivity limitations affect the current ability to collect relevant data to track and analyze health conditions.

According to respondents, there are five major barriers to designing smaller wearable devices, including miniaturization of sensing components (40%) and miniaturization of hardware (such as connectors) (39%), as well as power management (32%), signal quality (29%) and thermal management (22%). The top three material innovations mentioned by respondents include biocompatibility, published functional and reliability data for new materials, and "wear testing" simulations in real-world environments.

Energy harvesting draws attention

Overall, respondents are optimistic about the potential of harvesting patient energy (e.g., body temperature, sweat, heartbeat, motion, etc.) to power wearable devices. While acknowledging that it will take time and innovation to advance this area, respondents identified motion (49%), body temperature (35%), and sweat (13%) as the most viable sources of energy harvesting. 

Collaboration is expected to drive global innovation

63% of respondents said that close collaboration between industry, government and academic groups is expected to drive the greatest innovation in wearable diagnostics. Although nearly three-quarters of respondents from China ranked teamwork as highly important, the responses of respondents in the UK (52%), France (57%) and Germany (59%) were closer to those in the US (61%).