According to Boillat et al. (2018), the first step in disease management requires radical lifestyle changes, away from the unhealthy ones. The authors envision the importance of the role of personalised, miniaturised Information Technologies (IT), specifically smart watches, in supporting patient’s self-management efforts in any daily life context, acting as a reminder for specific activities and documenting the patient’s progress via a checklist-based approach.

“Wearable technologies, such as smart watches, offer new opportunities to support chronic care and enables patients’ self-management. Compared to traditional chronic care management that requires patients to regularly travel to a clinic, wearables provide more flexibility and actively include patients in the process.” (Boillat et al., 2018, p.78)

Indeed, this trend is supported by a recent report from Research & Markets that predicts that the global wearable medical devices market will reach US$ 14.41 billion by 2022, up from US$ 6.22 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 18.3% during the forecast period.

According to the report, the growth of this market is driven by factors such as technological advances in medical devices, increasing penetration of smartphones and growing number of smartphone-based healthcare apps compatible with wearable devices, growing preference for wireless connectivity among healthcare providers, and increasing awareness about physical fitness.