This market is definitely crossing a lot of chasms between wearable patches and other communication devices. A large part of this is due to costs being driven down, SOCs (systems on chips) getting smaller, the advent of Bluetooth low energy, and of course the smart phone.
One of the major challenges with these new IOT devices is the need to measure a wide variety of parameters or vital signs on a continuous basis. Then there needs to be way to cross-correlate those parameters and look at trends before adverse events happen. By the time morphological change happens on a EKG, other parameters have been effected such as Sp02, blood pressure temperature, etc.
What you really want to look at is trends that provide alerting before something actually happens. It also would be valuable to create specialized algorithms that would provide this alerting. Perhaps by gathering this data into a centralized repository, the algorithms could also be learning on a on-going basis. Deep learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence) markets are now in their infancy. All of the aforementioned is based upon many years in the acute care patient monitoring space.
Integra Systems, Inc. has been fortunate to work with and follow one such company for several years. www.smartcardia.com This wearable multi-sensor measures a complete set of physiological and vital parameters on a continuous basis. These parameters include the EKG, heart rate, heart rate variability, pulse rate, oxygen saturation (Sp02), blood pressure variations and trends, skin temperature, activity and posture. The product has received CE Medical Device certification. SmartCardia SA is a Swiss medical device company with a focus on clinical quality data and scientific validation. It is an ISO 13485 and ISO 9001 certified medical device manufacture and meets the strict quality control standards for the solutions. The company is also ISO 27001 certified for data security and privacy.