Wearable tech is a fledgling effort into pushing total technological ubiquity. The point in time where people no longer need their hands to connect to the world has yet to arrive, and some people may no longer be around to welcome it. But, the pilot instances of smart wearable gadgets may help individuals receive compensation during the, sometimes literally, painful wait.
A Fitting Advancement
Professionals from Versitrax.com, an insurance tracking software provider, are optimistic regarding the applications of wearable tech, more specifically smartwatches and their fitness tracking capabilities, in streamlining the link between insurer and insured.
They say that the technology allows more accurate tracking from the side of the insured individual, creating a two-way check and balance system together with insurance companies’ Certificate of Insurance (COI) tracking software. COI tracking is primarily concerned with risk management among insurance companies and their vendors.
The Power of Data
With wearable trackers, there can now be a shared accurate-to-the-second health record between vendors and their clients. This expands the risk management system to determining the legitimacy of insurance claims, something companies are currently struggling to monitor.
"We get data when we underwrite, we don't get much [else] along the way, and then at claim time, we have data again,” says David Hackett, executive general manager of insurance from MLC. He refers to the intermittent nature of information when it comes to tracking insured clients, and how wearable technology can finally create a continuous stream of data. "This is where this [smart]watch is filling in the gaps. In our case, getting the data that we've already got and putting it in a useable form," he said.
"We really are on an exponential progression around wearables, telemetric, virtual reality, and we will see over the next decade dramatic advances in technology, data, and capability," Hackett said at the FST Media Future of Insurance conference in Sydney. "How we embrace that and evolve our businesses to deliver more suitable outcomes for our customer base, I think is still just open to our imagination," he added.
