iHealth blood pressure cuff

Over the next five years, ABI Research expects 100 million wearable remote patient monitoring devices to ship.

This growth, ABI said, is in part a result of providers who are more aware of the benefits remote patient monitoring wearable devices can provide to patients outside of the hospital. ABI adds that because of the growing interest in these devices, there's a bigger opportunity for platforms that collect data from several devices and apps, for example Apple's HealthKit.

While HealthKit hasn't officially launched for the public yet, Apple has secured partnerships with many healthcare companies. The company announced its partnership with EHR vendor Epic Systems when it unveiled the product, but since then, there have been rumors that Apple is also in talks with Allscripts, and various providers including Johns Hopkins, Mt. Sinai, and the Cleveland Clinic.

“Data has traditionally resided in silos belonging to specific applications delivered primarily by device vendors themselves," ABI Research Principal Analyst Jonathan Collins said in a statement. "New cloud platforms capable of collecting data from a range of vendor devices and sharing it securely with a range of related parties including patients, healthcare providers, and payers will drive adoption and bring more connected devices to market."

In February, ABI reported that health and fitness wearable computing devices will be a main driver of the 90 million wearable devices that are expected to ship in 2014. Shipment estimates for healthcare wearables were approximately 13 million in 2013, but will reach 22 million in 2014, and 34 million in 2015. Health and fitness wearable shipments were 32 million in 2013, but will be 42 million in 2014, and 57 million in 2015.

This year, another research firm, Berg Insight, predicted 19.1 million patients around the world would be using connected home medical monitoring devices by 2018, up from three million in 2013. The firm also said remote patient monitoring revenues reached $5.8 billion (4.3 billion euros) in 2013 and are expected to grow to $26.4 billion (19.4 billion euros) by 2018.