Innovation Signal 40 (2026) | 15 July 2026
Healthcare is beginning to understand patients between clinical appointments
Short note, about 5 minutes to read
What happened
Wearable devices, remote patient monitoring and digital health platforms have existed for many years, helping people record measurements such as heart rate, activity, sleep and glucose levels.
Recent research is beginning to move beyond collecting individual measurements. Researchers are developing ways to combine continuous streams of physiological, behavioural and environmental data into digital biomarkers that may provide clinically meaningful insight into how a person's health changes over time.
Recent work from the University of Geneva has demonstrated how passive data collected over several months can help estimate changes in cognition and emotional wellbeing. Researchers at the Hasso Plattner Institute, TU Dresden and the University of Stirling are also developing approaches that connect continuous sensor data with health outcomes more systematically.
Why this matters
Healthcare has traditionally relied on information collected during clinic visits, laboratory tests and patient questionnaires. As a result, many important changes that occur between appointments remain difficult to observe.
Researchers are now exploring whether continuously collected data can help fill those gaps, allowing clinicians to understand how health changes over time rather than relying primarily on isolated measurements.
Who should care
- Healthcare providers
- Digital health companies
- Clinical researchers
- Medical device developers
- Public health organisations
What could change over the next 2 to 3 years
Research programmes may validate more reliable digital biomarkers for monitoring neurological conditions, mental health, cardiovascular disease and other long-term conditions where health changes continuously rather than suddenly.
Selected healthcare providers and clinical research programmes may begin incorporating passive monitoring alongside conventional assessments to improve earlier detection and long-term follow-up.
What might block this
Clinical validation, data quality, interoperability, privacy, patient trust and regulatory acceptance remain significant challenges.
Healthcare organisations will also need clear evidence that continuous monitoring improves clinical decisions rather than simply generating more data.
Why I am sharing this
Healthcare has historically been designed around occasional observations rather than continuous understanding.
If current research continues to mature, clinicians may gradually recognise deteriorating health earlier, monitor long-term conditions more effectively and personalise treatment based on how patients change over time rather than relying primarily on isolated appointments and tests.
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Archive Tags
Digital Biomarkers · Remote Patient Monitoring · Healthcare · Wearables