I don’t know how I missed the news that Google is making a medical watch focused on tracking your health. Here’s an excerpt from The Verge article:
The wristband is being developed by Google X, the secretive lab behind projects like Glass, Loon, and the company’s self-driving cars. It won’t be available to general consumers. Instead, Google intends for the device to be used in clinical trials and prescribed to medical patients.
Talk about a fundamentally different way to approach a smart watch. The last line begs the question of whether the Google Watch is going to be FDA cleared. It seems like it would need to be if it’s being “prescribed” to patients.
I find this approach absolutely intriguing and a welcome site in healthcare. I’ve often said that a company whose built in the capability of getting a device or app FDA cleared is going to have a big advantage over the thousands of mHealth companies which are just skirting by without an FDA clearance. It seems that Google is building this capability which will put it in a prime place to really disrupt healthcare.
Obviously, it’s very early in the process of them creating an FDA cleared (assuming they go that direction) Google smart watch, but the idea is intriguing. I think it’s going to take an FDA cleared smart watch to really get the attention of doctors.