Digital Health at CES 2025: Wellness and Wearables Take Center Stage

Published in Member Communities on January 28, 2025

By Nikki Jensen, Vice President of Wellness, VGM & Associates

This year’s Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas was fantastic! As a first-time attendee, I wasn’t sure what to expect other than lots of people, more than 141,000 to be exact. I was advised to make a plan for the education sessions and exhibitors since there were over 300 education sessions and more than 4,500 exhibitors.

From an educational session perspective, I focused on the digital health track. The consistent message that kept surfacing was the future of healthcare is wellness and preventative care. Primary care medicine is intended to fix something that’s broken, which makes sense. For example, heart disease isn’t treated until you present with symptoms.

Wellness and the Wearables Market

With the focus on wellness and prevention, the future is all about wearables and tracking personal data. Panelists and presenters from companies such as Samsung, Oura, Whoop, Google, Garmin, Dexcom, and Abbott all indicated the wearable market is increasing in size and producing enhanced data. Regardless of which wearable an individual uses, they’re likely to see improved health because they’re more aware of their personal health, and the data is nudging them to make better choices. Ultimately, it’s the better choices over time that will have an impact on chronic disease. Statistics indicate as much as 80% of chronic disease is caused by lifestyle choices, and even more startling is 50% of deaths are attributed to lifestyle and behavior choices.

With the advancement of wearables and technology like continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) becoming available to the general consumer, healthcare is moving out of the hospital and into the home, or better yet, into the palm of our hands via apps. Consumer use of CGMs may have the benefit of preventing diabetes in patients who use their data to make better lifestyle choices.

Continuing with the example of diabetic patients and using a CGM, an individual with diabetes may only see their doctor four times per year. That’s a cumulative total of one hour spent with their physician over the course of the year. With the technology provided by a CGM, that same person can track their glucose in real time and make adjustments as needed. The FDA approved CGMs for consumer use in June 2024. Products such as the Abbott Lingo and the Dexcom Stelo allow patients interested in their health to access a CGM to monitor their individual response to foods, exercise, and sleep to help modify habits to improve health.

Moving forward, the biggest hurdle is getting the wearable data into a format physicians can utilize. It’s clear the data collected by wearables is valuable information. The problem is with so many options and companies making wearables, there isn’t one system that can download data for the patient’s medical record. There’s a need for a platform with the interoperability for all wearables to upload into health systems.

Additionally, there’s a need for health coaches or navigators who can assist patients who are overwhelmed or confused by the wearable options. Imagine a patient advised to make lifestyle changes to improve their diet and exercise. That patient may be at a loss for lifestyle modifications. However, rather than giving up, they could work with a health coach or navigator to understand wearable options and receive instructions.

Women’s Health

In recent years, women’s health has been picking up momentum. From fertility to menopause, many topics that have previously been taboo are becoming open topics of discussion in a wide range of forums. There were a few sessions dedicated to women’s health at CES 2025, and I’m sure we’ll see this trend continue to grow. Some highlights covered in the digital health sessions include the very real possibility of breast cancer vaccines being available in the next 5-10 years. Cancer stem cells will be used to train a patient's immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. With customized vaccines, they will be able to take a sample of a patient’s cancer tumor and build a vaccine to fight against the cancerous cells. There is also a push to make current treatments less toxic to lessen the side effects of cancer treatments. Science is an amazing thing!

When it comes to menopause, all women will eventually experience it. One-third will experience no symptoms, one-third will have mild-to-moderate symptoms, and one-third will experience severe symptoms. Minority women tend to experience more severe symptoms than non-minority women. Today, only 22% of employers offer menopause benefits and sadly, many women are afraid to talk to their supervisor or human resources representatives regarding their symptoms and the impact it has on their work due to the stigma. It’s estimated menopause costs U.S. employers $1.8 billion in lost productivity. Beginning as early as their late thirties, a woman will enter perimenopause when her estrogen begins to drop, and she starts experiencing symptoms. Most people think of hot flashes as the primary and most dreaded symptom. However, for some women it's hard to pinpoint the cause when they start experiencing brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, and trouble sleeping. Estrogen receptors are present in the whole body, so as estrogen begins to drop, there isn’t a body system that isn’t impacted. From hair to weight gain and cardiovascular health, estrogen impacts everything. The hope is to continue to normalize menopause so women can feel empowered to talk about their symptoms and seek treatment.

There’s also a surge in research and investment in women’s health. The McKinsey report from January 2024 outlined a need for an increase in women’s health research because, for so many years, women were not included in clinical trials. It wasn’t until 1994 that women were included in clinical trials, and not until more recent years that the difference between men and women as a separate variable have been researched. The hope is that this increased attention and investment will help to provide better solutions for women’s health.

If you attended CES 2025 or if you have an interest in discussing wellness, please feel free to reach out to me at nicole.jensen@vgm.com.

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