Homes are changing, with the rise of smart and connected devices. Such is the case with home health devices, which are poised to transform the smart-home market, driven largely by remote-monitoring technologies. This will absolutely transform our homes, enabling many of us to age in place.
New research shows the smart-home healthcare market is still growing, but the challenge is the scale of the opportunity still remains largely underpenetrated. That means a lot of opportunity and growth still exists for many companies. Here’s just a quick glimpse at what the numbers are showing from ABI Research, which reveals how this technology will alter our homes.
Last year, new smart-home healthcare shipment and service revenues jumped 25% to reach $22.9 billion worldwide, but that growth will probably be hard to sustain. Looking to the future, the report shows new smart-home healthcare shipment and service revenues will reach $26.5 billion in 2023, which is a 15% bump from 2022.
What Is Smart Home Healthcare?
Let’s peel back the onion a bit on what exactly this means—and start by defining what exactly is smart-home healthcare. This technology can include connected homecare, remote patient monitoring, and social robotics. At its core, the technology can improve the health and care of the most vulnerable while reducing manpower and costs.
Drilling into the data a little further tells more of the story. We can see homecare can include things like wearable devices, home sensors, and even robot companions that can unobtrusively monitor and engage with those requiring light levels of care and companionship. As one example, continuous glucose monitoring shipments and services have shown strong growth, particularly outside the U.S. market. This is a good case of how connectivity can bring value to long-term medical management of a chronic condition.
While the market has been disrupted, much has changed and much has stayed the same. ABI Research suggests that despite a boom in do-it-yourself approaches leveraging smart-home equipment such as smart displays and sensors during the pandemic, the smart-home industry has failed to offer similar services. However, traditional personal emergency response players have expanded their offerings to include greater sensing and capabilities.
What Comes Next?
Certainly, there are huge opportunities for growth that will continue to disrupt the smart home as we know it today. Remote-patient monitoring applications is one example, which will surge with support from health insurance requirements and growing consumer awareness of the value of connected services.
As we look to the future, we can expect home healthcare and the smart home to merge even further. Amazon has already spent billions to bring two big players in both spaces into its fold: primary care company One Medical and smart-home company iRobot. Together, Amazon and One Medical look to deliver exceptional healthcare to more people to achieve better health outcomes, better care experiences, and more value, within a better care team environment.
As most of us know, Amazon tends to be a leader in disrupting a market—so expect smart home and healthcare will likely continue to be disrupted further in the months ahead. I for one am looking to see how this all shakes out. If all goes well, consumers seeking to age in place will likely be the winner in smart home and healthcare transformation.
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