Personal Healthcare and the Empowered Self

There is something big going on in personalized healthcare. This emerging market illustrates how future networks are changing our lives and the art of the possible. Here is my personal experience.

In 2008-2010 I had a ton of stress in my life (as CEO responsible for leading an enterprise software company through the depths of the US economic collapse). I weighed 230 pounds to start the period. I have little idea what my blood pressure was. And I know that I was glued to a computer screen most of the time answering emails, doing Web research, and trying to act strategically.

Then early in 2010, my wife and I adopted a baby girl (now 3 years old). And it made me start taking the state of my health more seriously. I started working on reducing the stress by sharing business responsibilities. But importantly, in one of my frequent trips to the Apple Store, I picked up a Withings wi-fi scale. Once I got it on the home network – in about April of 2011 – I was able to start measuring my weight and keeping a personal record  (automatically every morning)- accessible by the Web. That helped me understand that in addition to lessening the stress, I also needed to change the diet.  So I did, eventually evolving into what is referred to as a strong plant based diet. (not an easy thing to do with an ethnic Midwest background and tons of travel in my life).

Seeing some success in my weight tracking, I then discovered the Withings blood pressure cuff (also at the Apple store), and started keeping a record of my blood pressure. This happened in August of 2011.  Measuring my blood pressure involved a little more initiative. You have to plug the cuff into your I-Pad. But it was equally informative. Over time, I was able to match my progress on blood pressure with the progress on my diet.

Then, in June of 2012, I got turned on to the fit bit – a smallish device that fits in your pocket and which measures your activity. I quickly discovered that my computer/work habits meant that I was moving about 5000 steps a day or less – about half of what it takes to burn 3,000 calories or more. And after a little research, I also discovered that lack of motion also affects both the health of our brains, and the rate at which they age. This meant that I had to find a way to hold myself accountable to not less than 10,000 steps a day. Fit-bit (based on accelerometer sensor technology) let’s me know when I am active, and when not. It is most helpful when used in the context of the weight and blood pressure data.

What happened?

Between April of 2011 and today, I lost 25 pounds (50 in total from my 2008 highs). My body fat dropped from 26% to 23%.  My blood pressure dropped by 30 points in both measurements to under 120 over 70.

I increased my activity score from 5,000 steps a day to 10,000-12,000 steps a day (more than doubling), by making myself get up and run in the morning, or in the evening. And during the day, it makes me get up from my desk and do something active. I also learned that when I travel to an urban area like New York City, DC, or San Francisco, it is not uncommon to achieve almost 20,000 steps (about 7 miles a day), walking around the city and hitting the subway (especially in NYC).

A little success lead to further search and discovery. I started using the MyTracks application on my Samsung Note 2 to match the distance that I run or walk to my activity. Basically, with GPS it tracks my route, elevation, speed of run etc.,

And of course – it is important to bring it all together in one Web experience. For that I use Tactiohealth. From Tactio I have a complete picture all of the time across every device – my desktop, Galaxy Note 2, Iphone, Mini-Ipad, and everything else. But, I am also connected to a community – most importantly to measure my progress versus my peer group.

And that is just the start of the empowered self. At SXSW I learned that within the next 18-24 months we should able to buy a MUSE at Best Buy. With a MUSE  (the brain sensing head band) we can correlate all of this data to multiple forms of our brain waves – what were we thinking when we ate that big salad, meditated, exercised, or while we sat at the computer all day. Apparently, we may be able to control some of our computer function by brain wave (i.e. the MUSE) as well.

What does this all mean?  For starters under Obamacare about 2 billion dollars is to be distributed to health care providers based on how frequently patients return to the hospital for care. What if they had this type of data in real time to anticipate who is at risk of coming back – and who is not?  What if they had access to the data before weight, blood pressure, and other bio-indicators became chronic issues?  And what if because you and I have the data instead of the primary health care providers, and the data travels with us – we own it – we stay healthy and out of the hospital, health care system etc?

You can see where this is going. This is one version of the empowered self and the foundation for personalized health care. There really is something big going on here!

And one more thing: Where does that get you?

Exhibit A: A 235 pound tired stressed out executive with a beautiful wife (2006).

Versus: a rested, healthy, vital and fit thinker @ 183 pounds (2013) (still have the beautiful wife and a wonderfully vibrant 3 year old daughter)

Mind over matter – if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!

Click forward to your interest:  (1) open innovation (2) sophisticated collaboration, and,  (3) commerce.