Personal health monitoring will change the world
For some time now we have been witnessing fast-paced development in the monitoring and measurement of health-related issues, led by a demographic characterized by its familiarity with technology and the social networks.
The phenomenon of the quantified self in relation to the measurement of parameters involving personal wellbeing, including aspects such as basic indicators and all the way through to social stratification models aimed at self-motivation, is nothing new: the first activity trackers like Fitbit date back to 2009, and inspired a wide range of devices of different types within a segment that has become known as wearables. The main players here are companies like Nike, Jawbone, Misfit, Bowflex, Withings, and many more, and that combine with or blend into devices such as smartwatches or smartphone applications.
At the same time, there is a large ecosystem of devices for measuring weight, fat percentage, heart rate, blood pressure, tiredness, etc by the above-mentioned brands and others, and that aim to complement an image of our general state of being, and that can even provide clinical diagnosis, and that are generating a lot of interest:
Scanadu, about which I have talked at length, has been able not just to multiply by 16 its initial objective of $100,000 via crowdfunding on Indiegogo, but has also recently raised $10.5 million from private investors to continue development.
According to a recent survey by Pew Internet and the American Life Project, an estimated 70% of Americans monitor certain health parameters, although the majority do so through conventional, unconnected devices using low technology or no technology at all, such as their memory or a notebook.
Around one fifth of these people use specific applications for the purpose, a growing percentage as these applications become more available and easier to use.
So where is all this taking us? The increase in the numbers of people who systematically monitor their health parameters is being matched by the spread of a culture based on healthy exercise: we have never seen so many people running, walking, or practicing some kind of sport.
Companies operating in this segment are attracting more and more investment, creating an ecosystem that is on a collision course with the health industry.
Investment in digital health has tripled over the last year. An environment that is constantly producing new data has much to offer medicine in the face of health services move away from purely curing illness to preventing it, while at the same time dedicating more resources to research. We are steadily moving toward mechanisms that permit almost constant monitoring, and away from diagnoses that simply provide a snapshot: a redesign of all health-related issues that could catalyze major changes and rethinks in many companies related to it.
I am convinced that we will soon see the first systems commercially focused on preventive health monitoring. We will see personalized medicine systems that, combined with the rise of personal genomics, will be focused on demographics with the money to pay for them: these devices are not cheap, and creating the centers to constantly monitor, read and diagnose data on the go even less so. But given the incentives, we are talking about something is simply a question of time, and that without doubt will change our perceptions of many areas of life.
