Question

You are the CEO of Fitbit and have made a decision to advance the wearable bracelet/watch to manage hypertension (a chronic disease). Discuss the critical elements that you have to attend to if the device is to succeed. (Refer to the Fitbit case study).

Answer 1

Fitbit tracks every part of the day. It tracks the activity, food, weight , number of steps, heart rate,sleep pattern etc . It helps us to stay healthy, stay motivated , by providing us the data of our health status in our wrist bands. The information is then send to our phones fitbit app and we can use this information while consulting a doctor.

Unfortunately ,the fitbit does not have the blood pressure recording system , the company is working on the system to include this data because hypertension like chronic disease ,all over the world people are suffering from hypertension in s huge number and will also help to keep track of cardiac system. The device should record the following components for blood pressure :-

1 . Bloop pressure during activity- monitoring BP during activity.

2. Blood pressure during rest periods - monitoring BP during rest.

3. Sodium level in the blood - increase in BP is due to high levels of sodium in blood . Monitoring will help to reduce risk to develop BP.

4. Heart rate- for monitoring the cardiac status.

5. Sleep pattern- less sleep is one of the causes of hypertension , monitoring will help in improving the sleep pattern.

6. Weight changes- increase in weight causes hypertension, monitoring it will decrease the risk.

7. Stress level- increase stress levels develop hypertension in people, monitoring it will decrease the risk.

8. Activity- sedentary people are more prone to hypertension that the working people , monitoring this will help to improve the activity level.

9. Diet pattern- oil,salt ,spices , fast-food, etc having a track of these will motivate us to change the diet pattern .

10. Smoking/ alcohol- both of them causes increase in blood pressure, track of how many times you smoke or drink will provide you data of how close you are to develop hypertension.

If the above mentioned components are tracked then it will be successful in the health market as these components are the causes also which lead to hypertension and it will become easy for the people to have control over these components which are causes too to avoid hypertension and can make modification in their lifestyles according to the results .

The data on daily basis will be send phone app and people can share this information with their physicians during consultantion.