The global wearable technology market is on the rise, and is expected to be worth $34 billion by 2020, according to a recent Forbes report.

With the emergence of a more affluent consumer health market, wearables are poised to revolutionise the healthcare industry, said the report.

In line with this market trend, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Middle East and the Watch Society will collaborate to hold the Watch Society Conference on November 1, during the UAE eHealth Week’s Dubai leg, said a statement.

According to Dr Homero Rivas, Watch vice president and secretary, wearables can be powerful, unobtrusive and elegant so they offer a variety of solutions for clinical use and patient-related issues.

As the congress president for last year's conference, he also mentioned that generated data resulting from the use of wearables will offer exciting propositions for medical science and patient treatment, added the statement.

Implementing successful implementation of wearables in the healthcare industry requires academic evidence, research, and partnerships to ensure that patient safety and care quality are significantly improved while investments remain sustainable, it said.

The market also faces challenges which includes scalability, patient privacy, physician resistance and costs, it stated.

It will be significant for UAE Healthcare that the UAE eHealth Week and the conference will be held concurrently, giving attendees the opportunity to discuss how wearable technologies can contribute to patient-centered care and better healthcare outcomes for the years to come as digitisation continues to transform how, when and where care is delivered and received, said the statement.

The topics to be discussed at the event will include adopting wearable technologies - innovation versus governance; the physician and patient sides of wearables; finding opportunities for digital health and wearables in healthcare; the future of wearable technologies, it added. – TradeArabia News Service