Recognized by Time magazine as among the 40 most influential minds in the tech world in 2013, Wadhwa has followed advances in personal monitoring devices closely. ResearchKit takes monitoring to the next level, he says, because its app "will enable constant monitoring of symptoms and of reactions to medications."

This is important for those with chronic illnesses, who often fail to adhere to self-monitoring and to underreport reactions. ResearchKit takes the work off their shoulders and does it all without a need for the patient to take action.

But even more significant, he writes, is ResearchKit's role in future clinical trials.

"Today, clinical trials are done on a relatively small number of patients, and pharmaceutical companies sometimes choose to ignore information that does not suit them," he writes. "Data that our devices gather will be used to accurately analyze what medications patients have taken, in order to determine which of them truly had a positive effect; which simply created adverse reactions and new ailments; and which did both."

And the trial results will keep flowing in from the study group as long as the monitors are in place, he notes, giving researchers ongoing updates.

"The best part is that the clinical trials will be continuing — they won't stop once the medicines are approved by the FDA," he writes.

Apple is betting that by addressing chronic illnesses with its new products, it will finally break through the profit barrier that has bedeviled consumer-targeting devices. That's because while a wristwatch full of gadgetry may only engage a consumer user for the short term, health care professionals appreciate the benefits of accurate monitoring of chronically ill patients.

"Apple has already developed five apps that target the most prevalent health concerns: diabetes, asthma, Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular disease and breast cancer," Wadhwa writes."The Parkinson's app can, for example, measure hand tremors, through an iPhone touchscreen; vocal trembling, using the microphone; and gait, as you walk with the device."

Read: How much will Apple bite into consumer health?

As Wadhwa further notes, it isn't just the Apples of the world that are reporting breakthroughs in personal monitoring devices. Private companies that are not yet household words are making strides in the precision monitoring field.

Among them is Telcare. It recently unveiled a diabetes monitor that not only monitors blood sugar level and does so without patient interaction, but includes new technology that has refined the measures to near 100 percent accuracy.

Telcare's latest glucometer technology, recently cleared by the FDA, addresses the inaccuracies in readings that can occur when a monitor is impacted by a factor such as the thermal disturbance that the transmission technology of a device causes.

The company's CEO, Andrew Flanagan, says this new level of accuracy required considerable investment and testing to balance the monitoring and transmission functions of the glucometer.

"What we're solving for is to maintain the accuracy of the blood glucose measurement, and to prevent disruption by the cellular system that sends the measurement information to the physician," he says.

The glucometer is a critical tool because it measures and reports back information that has to do with a patient's blood sugar, weight and blood pressure — all factors in more than one chronic diagnosis. The greater accuracy not only gives physicians a better picture of patient health, but for employer-sponsored plans can lead to significant savings as care is improved.

Most of Telcare's customers are plan managers, many of them overseeing employer plans, who are looking for ways to get more accurate data about plan members. Telcare's solutions can integrate with almost any plan design, Flanagan says, and provideongoing rich data with greater accuracy than anything else currently on the market.

In addition to greater test result accuracy, the Telcare glucometer addresses the issue of patient cooperation in their own health care.

"There is a hard dollar benefit associated with getting this right," he says. "As soon as the test occurs, the time stamp occurs, so the doctor knows when the reading occurred. We also let them know where it occurred geographically, so if a patient is trying to do 12 tests in the parking lot right before an appointment, now they're busted."

Telcare has strong financial backing, including support from Palo Alto-based Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Mosaic Health Solutions. And while they may not be on a branding level with Apple and Google yet, they offer more proof that big — and smart — money is following wearables that target the medical profession rather than consumers.

"Combined with genomics data that are becoming available as plunging DNA-sequencing costs approach the costs of regular medical tests, a health-care revolution is in the works," Wadhwa argues. "By understanding the correlations between genome, habits, and disease — as the new devices will facilitate — we will get closer and closer to an era of precision medicine  in which disease prevention and treatment is done on the basis of people's genes, environments, and lifestyles."The upshot? We will receive better health care for a fraction of the cost."