Prevention is at the heart of much of the national health reform discussion, but it all starts with fitness and wellness -- that's true for the emerging wireless health industry, too.
"Many believe that one of the earliest areas of wireless health that will really pop is the fitness and wellness side of it," Rob Mesirow, Vice President of the wireless association CTIA told MobiHealthNews in an interview this week. "That's mainly because there is less regulation on the fitness and wellness side of wireless health."
A dedicated, wireless-enabled fitness device also just commercially launched this week: Fitbit is an activity and calorie tracking device small enough to clip on to the user’s clothing. Fitbit uses an internal motion detector to track the wearer’s movement, sleep time and calorie burn during both the day and night. The device costs $99.
For those looking to live the quantified life, Fitbit can tell you the amount of steps you took today, miles traveled, calories burned, calories consumed, time you went to bed, time it took you to actually fall asleep, number of times you woke up during the night, total time in bed, and actual time sleeping.
Fitbit is just the latest piece of evidence that supports Mesirow's point. Here's a run down of the fitness and wellness solutions and studies that signal a building momentum for wireless wellness:
It's early days for wireless health, but fitness is -- as expected -- sprinting out in front.
