In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, governments around the world have focused their resources on curing the viral infection. Beyond the longer-term promise of vaccines, a growing range of actions are being taken to change medical procedures, including point-of-care testing, temperature screening, wearing of masks, social distancing, sterilization of surfaces, PPE, and symptom reporting. But wearable devices are also increasingly being seen as part of the solution, integrating with healthcare systems and providing important patient data.
The demand for medical device testing, inspection, and certification services has always been on the rise as these services play a vital role across the world in protecting consumers from poor-quality, unsafe medical device products. And according to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the Medical Device Testing Market was valued at USD 9.3 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 11.8 billion by 2025; growing at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2020 to 2025.
Among the many technologies that are now being integrated with healthcare systems are wearable devices. Just in June, the Financial Times reported that researchers were turning to wearable technologies such as Fitbits and Apple Watches in a bid to tackle the pandemic issue, using the technology to collect large volumes of real-time patient data to track the course of the disease.
In addition, earlier in March, according to mHealthIntelligence, San Diego-based SRTI launched DETECT, a national effort to gather data from smartwatches and activity trackers to analyze how activity, heart rate, sleep patterns and other connected health data can be integrated into a public health surveillance program. Participants were asked to upload their data through the MyDataHelps app.
Nemaura Medical Inc. announced last week that it has “issued a presentation outlining how CGM is being used by quarantined and hospitalized COVID-19 patients.”
The company has previously reported the uses of continuous lactate measurements for the monitoring of disease progression in COVID-19 patients. Now the company has issued a report outlining how CGM has been used as an effective tool for the monitoring of disease progression in both quarantined and hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
This includes improvement in glycemic control in persons with Type 2 diabetes, monitoring and managing hyperglycemia in patients with COVID-19, and remote monitoring of glucose levels in hospitalized COVID-19 patients leading to improved quality of care without compromising the safety of medical professionals.
Both the CGM and CLM (continuous lactate monitoring) products are based on Nemaura’s BEAT platform, which is designed to non-invasively extract a number of analytes through the skin. By adapting the sensor chemistry, algorithm, and mobile app interface initially developed for sugarBEAT, the BEAT platform has the potential to be utilized for several markets beyond glucose monitoring and diabetes. Nemaura is evaluating the timelines for bringing the CLM to market as a class II-approved medical device, and the CGM device is a CE mark approved Class 2b medical device planned for launch this calendar year in the UK and Germany.
