Garmin to develop wearables for clinical trials with ActiGraph

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Tech-giant Garmin is stepping into the medical wearables space through a new collaboration with ActiGraph.

The partnership will explore health and activity monitoring innovations combining Garmin wearables with ActiGraph‘s CentrePoint data analytics platform for academic research, clinical trials, and remote patient monitoring.

The collaboration will help Garmin compete against rivals such as Apple and FitBit whose wearable devices have an increasing medical focus with tech like ECG readers.

ActiGraph provides wearable accelerometry monitors and a software technology platform for data monitoring, analysis, and management. ActiGraph monitors are the most widely used and extensively validated devices of their kind, with clients at more than 1,500 pharmaceutical, academic, and scientific institutions in over 85 countries.

“ActiGraph is excited to work with an innovative company like Garmin,” said Jeremy Wyatt, ActiGraph’s chief technology officer and senior vice president of product development. “Garmin wearables produce high-resolution, accurate data streams that are ideal for scientific analysis and can provide additional, novel endpoints to the ActiGraph software platform. What’s more, the long battery life and ergonomic design of Garmin’s wearables means study participants can comfortably wear the devices for extended periods, leading to improved program adherence and study results.”

“Combining the sensor data from Garmin wearables with the data capture and analytical expertise of the ActiGraph platform creates a powerful solution for many different patient monitoring applications,” added Travis Johnson, Garmin Health global product lead.

In a statement Garmin added that it is committed to the development of wearables that can lead to the detection of serious health conditions and play an important role in the development of both traditional and digital therapeutics.

Healthcare systems and governments are increasingly warming to the idea of using wearables in care and clinical trials – in the UK, NICE this week unveiled new standards for digital tech that could help speed uptake of wearable devices on the NHS, while in the US health data firm Litmus Health has recently been awarded a contract with the National Cancer Institute to study the use of wearables in cancer R&D.