Wearable Health Tech Glossary of Terms

Wearable health is moving fast — and the technology is evolving faster than the language we use to describe it. Across biopharma, med-tech, and digital health, teams often use the same words to mean different things: adoption, compliance, burden, evidence, usability, endpoints. That creates friction, slows collaboration, and makes it harder to align on what success actually looks like.

This wearable health glossary is TechStyle Labs’ attempt to help. It’s not meant to be definitive — many of these terms are still being shaped as the category matures. But we believe shared vocabulary is part of building shared progress. Our goal is simple: make wearable health easier to discuss, easier to design, and easier to scale — with the human factor and real-world use always in view.

We also welcome new definitions or edits. Click HERE to let us know.

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Biopharma Vocabulary 

Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs)

 -  Trials designed to reduce site dependency by collecting data remotely and enabling participation in real-world settings.

Hybrid trials

 -  A blended model combining traditional trial sites with remote monitoring and decentralized components.

Digital endpoints

 -  Clinical trial measures captured via digital tools (wearables, apps, sensors) rather than only site-based assessments.

Functional outcomes

 -  Measures tied to real capability — mobility, dexterity, independence, and daily performance.

Real-world evidence (RWE)

 -  Data collected outside traditional clinical trials that reflects real-world patient experience and outcomes.

Adherence

 -  Whether patients follow the intended use protocol over time.

Persistence

 -  Whether patients continue using a device or therapy long enough for it to deliver

meaningful benefit.

Data fidelity

 -  The reliability and quality of collected data — including consistency, completeness, and correct use.

Feasibility

 -  Whether a wearable approach can realistically work in the intended patient population and workflow.

Evidence generation

 -  The process of producing credible proof that a product works in real conditions, not just in theory.

Protocol burden

 -  The workload and complexity a trial protocol places on patients and clinical teams.

Patient burden

 -  The effort, discomfort, time, and emotional load placed on the patient by a device, therapy, or trial.

Regulated environments

 -  Contexts where safety, compliance, documentation, and reliability are non-negotiable.

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Human Factor Vocabulary 

Comfort

 -  Physical wearability over time — the baseline requirement for adoption.

Usability

 -  Whether a patient can use the product correctly without confusion, assistance, or repeated training.

Identity

 -  Whether the wearable fits into someone’s sense of self rather than making them feel “medicalized” or stigmatized.

Dignity

 -  Whether the solution supports confidence, agency, and respect — especially in vulnerable health contexts.

Agency

 -  The feeling that the patient has control, independence, and competence in their own care.

Independence

 -  The ability to use and benefit from a solution without constant assistance.

Caregiver burden

 -  The unintended workload and stress a solution adds to caregivers.

Cognitive load

 -  The mental effort required to understand, remember, and operate a device correctly.

Friction

 -  Any obstacle that makes use harder: setup, maintenance, discomfort, confusion, stigma, or time cost.

Abandonment

 -  When patients stop using a device due to friction, burden, discomfort, or lack of perceived value.

Designed with, not for

 -  Co-creation: patients are involved in design decisions, not treated as passive recipients.

Lived experience

 -  The real daily reality of living with a condition — routines, constraints, emotions, and practical needs.

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Commercial Readiness Vocabulary

De-risk

 -  Reduce the chance of costly failure after launch by validating human use early.

Pre-scale validation

 -  Testing what matters before manufacturing, rollout, and enterprise commitment.

Reduce downstream surprises

 -  Catch adoption failures early instead of discovering them after launch.

Readiness

 -  The state where a concept has enough evidence and usability proof to justify scaling investment.

Collaboration model

 -  A structured way of working with enterprise teams (clinical, digital, regulatory, product).

Deployment

 -  Real-world rollout into patient populations, workflows, and operational settings.

Scale pathway

 -  The plan for moving from prototype and pilot into manufacturing, distribution, and long-term adoption.

Scale handoff

 -  TechStyle Labs hands off validated concepts to manufacturing and enterprise teams once the product is ready.

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Wearable Innovation Vocabulary 

Wearable infrastructure

 -  Wearables as part of healthcare’s operational backbone — not consumer gadgets.

Wearable interface

 -  The physical layer where a person interacts with health technology (often clothing, not screens).

Remote patient monitoring (RPM)

 -  Collecting patient health and functional data remotely to improve outcomes and reduce burden.

Functional monitoring

 -  Tracking what people can do in daily life, not just what their vitals show.

Mobility and movement

 -  Real-world indicators of function, fall risk, strength, and independence.

Dexterity and fine motor function

 -  Daily-life capability indicators often missed by traditional monitoring.

Daily-life signals

 -  Meaningful behavioral and functional patterns captured in the real world.

Onboarding and ease of use

 -  How quickly and confidently a patient can begin using the product correctly.

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TechStyles Labs Vocabulary 

Empathy is the operating system

 -  Empathy is not a sentiment — it is the method TechStyle Labs uses to make wearable products usable, adoptable, and compliant in real life.

The patient is the expert in their own experience

 -  Patients are the only people who know what it’s like to live inside a therapy, device, or protocol — and that knowledge is essential design data.

Wearable health needs a human factor

 -  The future of wearable health depends less on what we can measure and more on what people will actually use consistently.

Adoption is where innovation succeeds or fails

 -  Even brilliant technology fails if people don’t wear it, trust it, or stick with it over time.

Compliance is a design problem

 -  Non-compliance is often caused by discomfort, burden, stigma, confusion, or friction — not by patient “motivation.”

Designed for daily life

 -  Products must work in real routines, real bodies, real constraints — not just in trials or controlled environments.

Before scale

 -  TechStyle Labs works at the most fragile point in innovation: where a concept is promising, but adoption risk is still high.

Prototype → Pilot → Real life use → Scale handoff

 -  TechStyle Labs moves fast from insight to tangible prototypes, tests in real contexts, then hands off for manufacturing and scale.

Real-world use signals

 -  Practical evidence that a product can be used correctly, repeatedly, and sustainably — before large-scale rollout.

Impact over tech

 -  Technology is the tool. Measurable improvement in people’s lives is the goal.

Beyond the wrist

 -  Health monitoring cannot remain limited to wrist-worn devices and basic metrics — the next frontier is clothing and daily-life infrastructure.

Holistic health data

 -  Health data includes mobility, function, burden, dignity, and usability — not just vitals.