“3.8 billion people on the planet have a smartphone, but if you pair that with a $50 smartwatch you’d have a health monitoring system for 3.8 billion people. I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg on what’s possible.” – Stanford School of Medicine PhD professor Michael Snyder.
In recent years, I have experimented with fitness and sleep trackers, such as the Oura Ring, Fitbit, and Apple Watch, and I eventually ended up with a “Whoop”. These AI algorithm-equipped devices continuously monitor vital signs, sleep patterns, and activity levels.
My experience with this device has been nothing short of incredible. The AI algorithm calculates many metrics such as my recovery, strain, and sleep performance. After a couple of months of tracking these metrics, I started to notice that I could predict whether I would perform well in my soccer games, during my studies, and how I would feel overall.
This made me think: isn’t it possible to also detect diseases before they happen using these devices? It turns out they can. Professor Michael Snyder’s research showed that the Oura Ring, combined with an AI model, could detect Covid-19 three days before symptoms, with over 90% accuracy. Michael even detected his own Lyme disease. “Basically my heart rate went up and my blood oxygen dropped before I was symptomatic,” he says (Redman, 2023).
But why don’t any of these devices have a medical diagnosis button which will turn red when you’re getting sick? Well, this probably has to do with complexity, regulation, and ethics. As technology and AI algorithms keep improving, I am hopeful that sickness prediction could become a common feature. And we will prev-ai-ent, instead of cure.
Made with AI
Stanford Healthcare Innovation Team & Michael Snyder. (z.d.). CBS News Interviews Michael Snyder About Our Wearables Research Study and Self-Tracking Your Health Data. | Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab. https://innovations.stanford.edu/covid-19/cbs-news-interviews-michael-snyder-about-wearables/.
Redman, J. (2023, 1 juni). Can a Fitness or Sleep Tracker Tell If You’re Sick? Wirecutter: Reviews For The Real World. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/fitness-sleep-tracker-sick/.
