The Investigation and Analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of Wearable Electronic Technologies: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Wearable electronic devices, which are based on Internet of Things (IoT) and big data computing, are able to continuously collect and process the physiological and environmental data and exchange them with other tools, users, and internet networks. Therefore, despite their potential benefits in health monitoring, they can pose serious risks, especially in breach of privacy. Hence, the main question in this study was to identify the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to wearable electronic technologies. Method: In this study, StArt 3.4 software was used for systematic review. Studies until November 30, 2019 were searched for keywords in “Scopus”, “IEEE”, “PubMed”, “Springer”, “Magiran”, “SID”, and “Sivilica” databases and Google search engine. Results: After deleting duplicate and unrelated documents, 80 documents were selected for final review and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Accordingly, the main identified strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat were “improving lifestyle and human capabilities”, “low data reliability and user interface”, “applications in health and medicine”, and “information abuse and privacy breach” with 97.5%, 92.5%, 94%, and 99% frequency, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that improving human capabilities and application in medicine and health care are the main driving forces for the development of wearable electronic technologies. Therefore, in order to take advantage of the opportunities and overcome the potential threats of this technology, planning for the development and application of indigenous knowledge, as well as the development of the required standards and rules, must be put on the agenda immediately

Keywords

• wearable electronic technologies
• strengths
• weaknesses
• opportunities
• threats
• swot analysis