Garmin has announced it's partnering with Actigraph, maker of medical-grade monitors, to combine its wearable know-how with Actigraph's health expertise.

Actigraph has a platform called CentrePoint that transmits health data from its wearable health monitors in real time. These are quite serious, validated medical devices though, so Garmin is essentially getting a look-in into Actigraph's technology for its own consumer devices.

Read this: How to use the Apple Watch's ECG monitor

“Combining the sensor data from Garmin wearables with the data capture and analytical expertise of the Actigraph platform creates a powerful solution for many different patient monitoring applications," said Travis Johnson, global product lead at Garmin Health, in a nice summary statement.



As for how Actigraph benefits, it's getting access to Garmin's wearables, which means long battery life - which means better study results.

Back to Garmin: it needs to keep up with Apple and Fitbit, which are phasing into medical-grade offerings themselves. The Apple Watch just became an ECG monitor, while Fitbit promises its wearables will soon be offering similar features.

Garmin has both beat as far as its sports watches go, but it risks falling behind as these wearables transition from fitness trackers to essential medical tools.

The partnership with Actigraph isn't its first foray into more serious health tracking though. Most recently it announced a partnership with health analytics company Fitabase to aid health research. It also teamed up with Cardiogram to leverage the company's advanced heart rate technology.