Research

Much of the growth was attributed to the growing number of ear-worn devices as they captured almost a quarter of the market during the year.

Two key factors are contributing to this growth, including the growing popularity of smartwatches and greater wearables adoption in emerging markets.

New products from Fitbit, Garmin and Huawei helped propel the basic wearables category, and so did the growing demand in markets across Asia/Pacific.

The number comes from a massive RAND Corporation study which included 400,000 participants across the US, Europe and South Africa.

Put into dollars, that's $8B raised in 556 deals during the first 9 months of 2018, compared to $5.5B in 586 deals during the same period last year.

Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa and Latin America grew 14% YoY as basic wristbands are still in high demand.

The majority of surveyed patients (77 percent) expressed positivity about clinician usage of mobile technologies to improve the quality of their care.

Digital health companies in the United States raised $4.9 billion in 2017 with the remaining $2.3 billion coming from other countries.

The overall wearables market is expected to grow from 113.2 million shipments in 2017 to 222.3 million in 2021 with a CAGR of 18.4 percent.

Most patients, about eight out of 10 consumers, are still largely unaware of how to access telehealth or whether their insurer will cover it.