As part of the Digital Health research service, Parks Associates issued a Market Focus report on health-related, consumer electronics devices, “Multiple Medication Management & Smart Pill Boxes”. The study surveyed over 3,000 people that take multiple medications and gauged their interest in consumer electronics devices that could help them manage their medicines. One of the findings is that, young people are actually more open to using these devices than the elderly. One reason is that younger adults are simply more comfortable with technology. At the same time, older adults are better at managing their medicines and less likely to experience common challenges associates with it. The study also found that those caring for older family members are more interest in such devices. This raises intriguing possibilities of selling health devices indirectly by way of younger, more tech-savvy, consumers.

The market is ripe for a successful, health-care device that will sweep away the images fostered by “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” and prove health-care can be cool, convenient, and for the image conscious. Such a success will alter the way we think of consumer health devices and wake the industry up to the true potential that is at hand.