Physics / mechanism
Health & fitness as a market spans preventive care, diagnostics, wearables, performance optimization, and chronic disease management. Global market ~$5.5T (2024), with wearables alone at ~$95B growing >15% CAGR. Key parameters: sensor accuracy (PPG, ECG, SpO2, continuous glucose), latency from measurement to actionable signal, and data density per milliwatt of power consumption. State of the art: Apple Watch-class devices achieve medical-grade AFib detection; CGMs like Dexcom G7 achieve MARD <9%. The critical bottleneck shifts from hardware toward signal processing, edge inference, and heterogeneous sensor fusion at the chip level.
Competitive landscape
The real competitive axis is where intelligence sits — cloud vs. edge vs. on-sensor. Consumer platforms (Apple, Garmin, Samsung) dominate hardware integration. Pure-play medtech (Medtronic, Abbott) owns clinical-grade sensing. Emerging challengers operate at the semiconductor and photonics layer.
| Approach | Advantage | Constraint |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer wearable (optical PPG) | Scale, UX | Accuracy, regulatory ceiling |
| Implantable / medical-grade | Clinical validity | Cost, friction, reimbursement |
| Photonic / spectroscopic sensing | Non-invasive, multi-analyte | Power, miniaturization, calibration |
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.