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US Health Emperor Robert F. Kennedy JR hopes that all Americans will sport medical “wearables” over the next four years, and is now charging banks for such devices to make the country healthy again. The hopes of outspoken vaccine skeptics already have a pulse race for investors. Shares of glucose monitoring company Dexcom rose almost 10% on Wednesday.
Americans aren’t the only ones who like to monitor their happiness. Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto has been testing users’ urine for decades for diabetes and other conditions. The Primer Westerners prefer trackers around the wrist, or, in our Ring, their fingers. According to IDC, Home Grown Huawei is leading the sector in China, China’s largest smartwatch market. It’s surprising as the former boss once publicly declared he was pessimistic about the market.
Choosing a winner can be difficult, especially when politicians are involved in determining whose technology is most effective. As the UK has discovered during the pandemic, the health market tends to breed chronism. The Donald Trump administration has been embarrassed about supporting individual businesses.
Dexcom is already moving at least in the circle on the right. It partners with the health monitoring company level co-founded by Casey Means. Additionally, it has already laid the foundation for potentially useful industry collaboration. Dexcom supported Oura’s $200 million funding late last year.
Snafus is inevitable, from data breaches to privacy violations. From startup Theranos to Microsoft’s Healthcare Data Storage Vault, to Microsoft’s Healthcare Data Storage Vault, which closed in 2019, there are cemeteries of medical ventures that have tried to empower users.
Dexcom itself is increasing revenue with decent clips. The consensus forecast is a 20% increase in patients this year and a 15% increase in patients next year. However, demand is difficult to predict. Stocks and performance were unstable. It doesn’t help when new rivals spring regularly in attractive deals. Zoe in the UK is an example of providing home testing kits and personalized nutrition plans.
As for the obvious risk of becoming a trend, as Apple and Huawei show, tech companies already embedded in people’s lives, and many recipients of their data, have the best chance. But even that is not given. According to the app business, Google has no hardware in its DNA and has been reducing Active Fitbit users every year in recent years.
The eternal challenge to such ideas is that the path of minimal resistance is often seen as treatment rather than prevention. For example, in the case of weight loss, bariatric surgery gave away the ground to GLP-1 injections. Also, monitoring is valuable only when you act on what users have learned. Kennedy, like so many wearable device buyers, could be starting with good intentions. If that was enough.
louise.lucas@ft.com
