With IFA 2016 just around the corner, big names such as Samsung and Sony are unveiling new smartwatches that, in my opinion, may be ten times better than the Apple Watch (GASP!). With Samsung and Sony both revealing watches that would revamp designs (as if the 40 million existing ones were not enough), the world has gone head-over-heels for the new watches. However, with this in mind and the millions spent to develop this new technology, I believe there should be a shift in focus to the future of smartwatches which would advance the field of wearable sensors in the healthcare field.

According to AARP, drug companies are starting to develop wearable “stick-on sensors” and “wristbands” that would monitor a patient’s chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The fact that it is already 2016 and we are able to keep in touch with anyone in the world within two seconds and not with ourselves is a harrowing truth. For example, the only way for someone to know whether or not their cholesterol level is above 200 mg/dl is to go to a physician’s office, only to be given the conclusion that something could have been done two weeks prior to decrease the chances.

The drug companies which are shelling out millions of dollars to develop these wearable sensors have one aspect that stands out from the rest of the big name tech producers: this technology has the potential to save scores of lives. Forget about even monitoring one’s glucose/asthma/hemoglobin levels, this new technology could prevent all these chronic illnesses from occurring in the first place. With heart disease alone being the culprit for 25% of all deaths occurring in 2008, the possibilities of saving lives are endless. This technology, which is literally right at our fingerprints, could possibly be one that “touches” the lives of billions around the world.