Data from continuous real time monitoring can be analyzed to provide early detection or in some cases prediction of changes in health status.   This approach is being applied across a wide variety of conditions, including heart disease, epilepsy, parkinsons disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer.  

Extending Therapies from Clinical Settings to the Home

Sensors capturing movement data can be particularly useful for home-based rehabilitation, often leveraging both wearable and ambient sensors to provide augmented feedback. 

Improved Adherence

Medication and therapy regimens are only effective if patients adhere to them. Sensors can be applied to monitor adherence and provide inputs to systems designed to improve adherence through alerts, reminders, persuasive design and gamification techniques for patients, caregivers and therapists.

Management of Chronic Conditions

The number of wearable physiological sensors connected to smartphones are expected to grow significantly over the next 5 to 10 years.  As the healthcare industry faces increasing pressure to improve outcomes while lowering costs, the ability to combine data from these sensors with data from other systems to measure treatment effectiveness will become more important, not just in clinical trials, but in the context of managing population health.

Companies that are proactive in using sensor technology together with other techniques to create and demonstrate superior effectiveness will reap significant rewards in this environment.

To see examples in each of the categories visit : http://www.hitconsultant.net/2013/09/11/how-sensors-are-transforming-the-life-sciences-industry-landscape/