Bryan O'Rourke shares his views on the wearable technology trend in this 2014 article from the UK's Health Club Management magazine.

1. September 2013 © Cybertrek 2013Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital68 September 2013 © Cybertrek 2013 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 69
HOW COULD WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES IMPACT THE
HEALTH CLUB BUSINESS? BRYAN O’ROURKE SHARES HIS
VIEWS ON THE POSSIBILITIES OFFERED BY THE LATEST
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS
I
n May of this year, Credit Suisse
analysts advised their investment
clients of “the next big thing”, and
it wasn’t an innovative new drug
or social network platform – it was
wearable technology.
From the music business to
hospitality, new technologies are
disrupting a long list of industries. With
Google Glass, I-Watch, the Nike Fuel
Band and a host of other wearable
technologies coming to market, one
wonders how these could advance or
hinder health club business models.
Current global revenues of US$3–$5bn
are set to explode to more than US$50bn
in the area of wearable tech over the next
three to five years – and some think that’s
a conservative outlook.
Research firm ON World recently
released its mobile health and wellness
sensor reports which predicted that, in
2017, 515 million sensors for wearable,
implantable or mobile health and fitness
devices will be shipped globally, up from
107 million in 2012. ON World estimates
that, by 2017, wearables will make up
80 per cent of the “mobile sensing
health and fitness device” market. That
figure includes smart watches, which it
believes 48 per cent of consumers will
primarily use for health and fitness (see
http://lei.sr?a=H8g5r)
Meanwhile a new report from Juniper
Research suggests that health and fitness
devices will make up half of all wireless
accessories shipped by 2018 (see http://
lei.sr?a=0l1h4)
While these numbers may seem
outrageous, consider this: CISCO
forecasts that, by the end of 2013, the
number of internet-connected mobile
devices will actually exceed the human
population. In Hong Kong alone, the
average person has two smartphone
devices, yet the modern smartphone
trend emerged only five years ago. And
in the US today, more than 35 million
people are using health tracking devices.
It’s not unreasonable to think that this
trend is just getting started.
A new healthcare model
So what does this mean for health clubs?
The implications are unclear, but in a
world where the cost of traditional ‘sick
care’ is unsustainable, the paradigm of
preventative and ‘do it yourself’ patient
care is increasingly relevant. While
traditionally the health club industry has
largely catered to already fit enthusiasts,
the opportunity to capture the much
larger and growing sedentary market is
being made more viable through these
new wearable devices, with the proven
idea that lifestyle management is the best
means of driving down healthcare costs.
In his controversial book, The Creative
Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital
Revolution Will Create Better Health Care,
Dr Eric Topol sets out a construct of
the future of healthcare. According to
Topol, putting important health data in
patients’ hands is key to bringing about a
digital health revolution.
During a recent speech, the doctor
said: “There are more than a billion
pre-diabetics on the planet, and we have
warned them not to become diabetic.
What if they could get their glucose
every five minutes just for a week, and
learn what are the foods and the lifestyle
choices that are putting their pancreas
into a high-gear mode we want to avoid?
Wouldn’t that be a great education for
that individual, because each one has his
own environment, own nutrition?”
Topol is right: primary prevention is
key to enhancing the quality of life for
billions of people by avoiding chronic
disease in the first place. Increasingly
convenient and inexpensive devices
could be a key part of systems that keep
people healthy by impacting on lifestyles.
Integrating technology
The DIY Health movement, known to
some as the Quantified Self trend (see
HCM April 13, p39), has evolved from the
surge in new apps and devices actively
being adopted by consumers keen on
preventing, examining, improving,
monitoring and managing their health.
How health clubs could get involved in
this shift is an important question.
The fitness industry has reached
an inflection point where business
models are going through increasing
fragmentation as consumer needs
become more distinct and business
models are honed. The paradigm
WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY
created by rising healthcare costs will
create more opportunities for clubs to
deliver lifestyle management to clients.
UK operator Nuffield Health is a
case in point. Its model represents a
commercial bridge between traditional
healthcare and primary prevention with
assessments, programmes, measures and
rewards centred on health outcomes.
More business models like Nuffield
will be appearing, and their reliance on
technology as a key component of service
delivery is likely. Indeed, as physical
and digital worlds merge, new forms of
wearables like Google Glass will lead to
unforeseeable and interesting possibilities.
Wearables technologies – along
with internet ubiquity and cloud-based
software – will enable facilities to deliver
wellness programmes and interact with,
track and motivate clients in new ways.
It will likely change and expand the ways
in which trainers interact with members,
moving away from counting reps and
towards coaching and advising clients,
with a lot more behavioural data at hand.
Meanwhile, as governments and
employers wrestle with rising costs
associated with chronic disease, they
will look for solutions that achieve
health outcomes which avoid medical
conditions – and the fitness industry
could address that opportunity.
The recent Affordable Care Act,
which goes into effect in the US
in 2014 (see also p82), serves as
evidence that policy must factor in
primary prevention as part of the
sick care equation. This approach by
governments and employers will be
PORTABLE HEALTH
The Quantified Self trend has evolved from
the surge in health monitoring devices
Google Glass – the new
eyeware technology could
have fitness applications
“WEARABLES WILL EXPAND THE WAYS IN WHICH TRAINERS INTERACT WITH
MEMBERS, MOVING AWAY FROM COUTING REPS AND TOWARDS COACHING”

2. September 2013 © Cybertrek 2013Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital70
Bryan O’Rourke is a health club
industry expert, technologist,
financier, shareholder and executive
in several fitness companies. He
works for Fitmarc, which delivers Les Mills
programmes to over 700 facilities in the US, and
heads up the firms Integerus and Fitsomo as CEO.
He advises successful global brands, serves as a
member of the GGFA Think Tank and is CEO of
the Fitness Industry Technology Council (www.
fit-c.org). He was also recently appointed to the
ACE industry advisory panel.
Website www.bryankorourke.com
“THE SURGE IN NEW TECHNOLOGIES – PARTICULARLY WEARABLES – WILL
CREATE NEW WAYS OF HELPING PEOPLE AVOID CHRONIC DISEASE”
a larger part of the cost reduction
equation in the coming years.
Growth of competition
All that glitters is not gold, as the
wearable trend will create risks. While
these technologies will enable new
business models for clubs that seek to
service members 24/7, both inside and
outside of their four walls, they could
also usher in a new era of competition.
Apple has hired experts in sensors that
monitor the human body from companies
like AccuVein, C8 MediSensors and
Senseonics. The electronics giant Samsung
recently divulged that it’s investing heavily
in wearable computers, and revealed that
it’s even developing systems for stick-on
patches to monitor health. The business
opportunity created by prevention and
technology is not going unnoticed.
In the end, the surge in new
technologies – particularly wearables –
will create new ways of helping people
improve their quality of life and avoid
chronic disease. Industries and businesses
that figure out how best to incorporate
these tools in a systematic way, to provide
outcomes for their clients, should flourish.
Will the health club industry be part
of this equation? I think so.
Wearable technologies will enable forward-thinking health clubs to engage with their members in new and exciting ways
In the US today, more than 35 million
people are using health tracking devices
WEARABLE TECHNOLOGYALLPHOTOS:SHUTTERSTOCK.COM