Connected fitness and intelligent health diagnosis, the health tech trends of 2020

Brands2Life’s hotly anticipated annual Tech Trends saw health at the top of the agenda this year.  The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones and Metro’s Lucy Hedges, fresh from CES, predicted that 2020 will be the year when AI combined with apps will accelerate healthcare and digital diagnosis will become mainstream.

The next generation of devices will bring innovative solutions to connect patients and doctors.  Amongst those tipped for success was Withings’s ScanWatch which passively tracks for heartbeat irregularities and sleep apnea and Valencell’s blood pressure ear buds, providing constant monitoring in a user-friendly way. 

Step changing diagnosis is the MedWand, combining eight diagnosis tools into a single hand-held device, enabling doctors to collect vital signs real-time from patients, be that from across the town or around the world. 

The other aspect that excited the panel was connected fitness.  From Instabeat, which attaches to swimming goggles and monitors heart rate, calories, laps and turns, through to smart trainers and insoles (Nike Adapt and Nurvv Run) which can guide runners to safely run faster and track their performance.   

What was clear is that that these exciting tech advances will continue to unlock new health and wellness possibilities and that the future really does look brighter.