Patients or Podiums? Wearable companies sell dreams of performance with ads of athletes winning medals, but most of us just want to stay alive... with fewer diseases and more years. The ads make you think that if it’s good enough for them, it must be good enough for you.
But the moment you cross from performance into healthcare, everything changes. The scoring changes. The stakes change. And winning here is harder than winning an Olympic gold.
Because healthcare’s red tape slows down even the strongest athletes. Large health systems throw out security and integration hurdles, and clinical dashboards are nothing like coaching dashboards. That’s why the conversation has to move from athletes to patients.
I’ve never been a great athlete. I don’t care about trophies. What I care about is simple... The convenience of a wearable that helps diagnose hypertension, atrial fibrillation, sleep apnea, diabetes, or early cognitive decline.
What do you want from the watch or ring your family wears?
Sports scientist have added real value. They pushed wearables into the mainstream. But most people can’t live like athletes. Turning those ideas into tools that guide medical care is where the real impact lives.
There are 250 PGA Tour golfers but 120 million Americans with hypertension. Seven hundred UFC fighters vs 54 million with sleep apnea. Four hundred fifty NBA players vs 6.5 million living with dementia.
So what makes more sense for healthcare? Should we keep marketing to athletes—or finally build wearables for patients?
I’m just a physician, not a corporate executive. But when I think about the business model for wearables, healthcare is where the real reward sits. Maybe it’s not glamorous. No championships. No confetti. No trophies. Just healthier people. And that seems like a better win.
The race is already starting with companies like Corsano Health and health systems like Orlando Health using WHOOP and Sensr devices. They’re not building tools for medals. They’re building continuous clinical monitoring that fits real life. Data that actually helps a physician make a decision.
It’s time for wearables to grow up and shift their mission from medals to medicine. We don’t need more proprietary recovery scores. We need earlier diagnoses.
So what do you think makes more sense for healthcare? Should we stop marketing to athletes? Do we need dedicated performance wearables and dedicated healthcare wearable companies or should it be the same device?