the future of medicine is here: it's time you start owning your own health

Own your own health: as exciting new technologies with major health care implications are emerging, 3D printing, diagnostic apps, new forms of data analysis and artificial intelligence, the tools that are democratizing health care for consumers are already amongst us.

The cutting edge of medicine is really not always high-tech; it's being more focused on prevention and being proactive, understanding your genetics. We're at $1,000 genome today; we'll be at $100 or even a free genome in the next decade. We know that sitting is the new smoking. We now have wearables that we can stick in our clothes and our cars and our phones that are going to help give us insight into our behaviors. We're in the era of integrating exponential technologies together.

For example, with Scanadu Scout today, as a consumer, you can track your vital signs very readily. Tech can help you do a better job of understanding health, wellness, early disease detection, and triage.

Tech like having an AI doctor blended with sensors like scanadu as a consumer will help you be more proactive, realizing that the best drug is walking, doing 30 minutes of exercise a day; being reasonable about your diet. Imagine when we can use some of these tools as levers, understanding that behavior change is hard, say, If you can look in the mirror in the morning and see future you and if your future you is 100 pounds heavier, that might change your lever on behavior change.

We could also use myers-briggs behavioral change methodologies to understand your care and your stick because just like precision and personalized medicine, not everyone needs the same drug or the same app or the same interface: How about we can start to use AI feedback loops integrated into your workday, integrated into your wearables, into your apps to be more proactive?
 
And how about card-based interfaces like Google Now: Not just leave work early because of traffic, but you also need to check in at the gym and get a few extra calories today if you're going to stay on track to a certain goal or to help manage diabetes or emphysema or heart disease.

Today, we're seeing a whole new realm of digital diagnostic and new tools that you can use at home (for example Exovite: scan your fracture; make one that fits you), enabling cheaper, faster, more effective health care, and shifting the power curve to the empowered and engaged consumer.The patient who can be a data donor, can be connected to their own data to gain insights early, can have a visit with their clinician in more seamless less expensive and less time-consuming ways.

So we're in an interesting era now, whether it's a tricorder or knowing your own genomics or having embedded sensors acting as your own personal check engine light can really shift health care diagnostics and therapy in smart ways.

The most important thing that anyone can do is start owning their own health. Using tools and apps to quit smoking, get on a diet, tweet out their weight from your scale, all those things can come together in powerful ways to be more proactive and preventative as opposed to waiting for disease to happen. So be the CEO of your own health; don't wait for your doctor to tell you what you need to do when you're in the ER or worse.

My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Here's my contact info. ​

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