Wise wearables

: a model framework for building innovation ecosystems for disruptive technologies in healthcare

Abstract

Macroenvironmental factors such as aging societies, with longer lifespans andincreased prevalence of co-morbidities are increasing spend and strain on the healthcaresystem. If these trends continue unchecked, health systems will face serious repercussions toaccess to and quality of healthcare. To combat macroenvironmental trends, different healthtechnology experts from WHO. WEF, and EU are calling for a shift in health culture fromdiagnose and treatment to prevention and health maintenance. One technology thatpotentially holds the key to this cultural shift is the cluster of wearable technologies. The aimof this study was to depart from the acknowledgement that recording of biometric data, orother functionalities, via wearables can aid users and populations in achieving diseaseprevention and health promotion, and if so, to formulate a model to guide the orchestration ofsuch a technology into the healthcare system. Both the hypothesis of the potential efficacy ofwearables and the validity of a formulated framework (Wise Wearables) was explored withsubject matter experts in qualitative interviews. The conclusions from this work are thatwearable technology has the potential to impact disease prevention and health management ifthere is alignment and collaboration between stakeholders, appropriate mechanisms utilized,and key adoption approaches taken. The Wise Wearables framework was also subsequentlyrefined because of the interviews. Disruptive innovation needs to take place not onlyregarding wearable technology, but also with members of its ecosystem. The proposed WiseWearable framework provides a conceptual roadmap on bringing digital health technologiesfrom ideation to reality.

Date of Award	3 May 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Henrique Martins (Supervisor)