This morning, Garmin and medical-grade monitor maker ActiGraph announced a new partnership that will focus on wearables for medical research and patient care.
Specifically, the pair will be applying ActiGraph’s CentrePoint data analytics platform to Garmin’s consumer-grade wearables. CentrePoint is a web-based, cloud-enabled service offering automated activity monitor assignments, data standardization and synchronization, at-home compliance monitoring, two-way subject communication and other features designed for clinical trials or other large-scale, multi-site health research.
“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,” Travis Johnson, global product lead at Garmin Health, said in a statement.
Why it matters
Wearables and continuous sensors are among a number of digital technologies transforming how researchers run clinical trials, and this deal signals Garmin’s continued interest powering those efforts. Similarly, integration of a robust patient monitoring platform allows the consumer electronics maker to offer a stronger product to healthcare providers interested in continuously monitor their charges.
What’s the trend.
This deal comes just months after Garmin signed a similar research-focused integration agreement with Fitabase, another research data management platform.
Looking at 2018 as a whole, the company has made a number of moves in the healthcare space including the release of its vivosmart 4 activity tracker with pulse oximetry and sleep analysis, an integration with heart health app Cardiogram, and a research agreement with the University of Kansas Medical Center. ActiGraph, for its part, was also recently announced as the technological backbone of a pilot study at Bayer.
On the record
“ActiGraph is excited to work with an innovative company like Garmin,” Jeremy Wyatt, chief technology officer and senior vice president of product development at ActiGraph, said in a statement. “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.”
