I’m a fan of wearbles. I hate to admit that I get a lot more use out of my $120 Fitbit than my $1500 Google Glass – but I think I’m the norm. I think it does demonstrate that there’s real potential to promote healthy decisions (as well as monitor health) with wearables. I was excited to see Digi, a Minnesota company, take the lead in making that happen. Good for health, good for economic development…

Etherios, a leader in IoT solutions and a division of Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII), today announced it has joined the Salesforce Wear initiative, creating the first ecosystem dedicated to accelerating the adoption of wearables in the enterprise. As part of the initiative, Etherios is focused on creating mobile-ready applications that help people lead a healthier lifestyle and improve their quality of life by leveraging an open solution that enables individuals to connect any wearable device to the Salesforce1 Platform through their AppExchange application, The Social Machine.

From remote patient monitoring to fitness tracking applications, Etherios is transforming wearable device data into actionable information. In one example, a patient’s health is monitored remotely from the comfort of their own home by hospital staff through connected scales, blood pressure cuffs and pulse oximeters that relay real-time information into the Salesforce1 Platform through The Social Machine. Family members can also take comfort as they receive updates on the status of their loved ones from their mobile device. Further, Etherios is enabling fitness tracking devices to encourage a more active lifestyle by creating “gamification” apps built on the Salesforce1 Platform. Companies are expanding their corporate wellness programs to include these apps and wearable devices to lower overall health insurance premiums for their employees.