The proactive medicine of the future: data donor

I have been talking about the proactive medicine that we should see with current technology. I think that’s when Apple introduced HealtKit in June 2014 with the presentation of iOS 8 when I started to see the advantages of sharing your health data so, at some point in the future, you can exploit this data. Actually, by 2014 some data were already being shared for example in Sports Apps I remember I started running in 2012 with the application.

of the Endomondo on the cell phone to get metrics over rhythm, times, distance and level… and is that as I have already told you, There’s nothing I like more than a graph: D

The point is, with Endomondo I was getting basic information about my training without even monitoring the pulsations of my heart to evaluate the effort, so the graphs were a little poor at that time: distance, time, map of the path and level. With that you had to manage to have an idea of your effort and possibilities to improve in the training.

Soon after I created myself the need to monitor the pulsations and I bought a device from Garmin so we can have this data. I don’t want to bore you with the pulsometers that have passed through my hands, I also have a problem with this (as with the graphics and the need to monitor everything), but I assure you that there have been many

Important data on your health

All these data gave me accurate information about my form status and performance but obviously my doctor wasn’t going to access Endomondo, my Strava profile or the page with the Garmin data to see them. Why do I have to take an effort test if a cardiologist can get into Strava and look at the pulses I have while I train t

ope? It doesn’t make much sense, does it? those data were already there. In the cloud, we just had to blow them up… but today we’ve gone even further, I’ve got a fantastic doll on me. Apple Watch with which I run that, apart from getting all the metrics during the training, He’s measuring my pulsations every time., the exercise I do coming to work walking or the hours of sleep I have accumulated in the last week. Don’t you think it would be a good idea for my doctor to be able to call me and say ‘Carl

You guys, I’ve been watching your pulsations and I see some weird peaks… come over here and we’ll do a full check. ‘? He’s obviously not gonna call us and tell us’ he’s gonna give you a heart attack in 3, 2, 1… ‘but it is possible to detect certain anomalies that would allow us to be proactive and avoid greater evils (never better said).

And why don’t they?

Basically. is not possible for the protection of Personal Data. Currently all studies using this data are data-based anonimized both for user privacy and for international data protection regulations. I mean, the public health body or institute that we are responsible for, you can have these data (provided we have given our consent, now we talk about this) but you can’t know who we are… doesn’t make much sense? This is against the main idea of being pro-active with end users,

but anonymous data do allow us to, for example, detect early flu or rare diseases that affect a particular segment of the population. To do this, specialized agencies and companies do not only review the data offered by my Apple Watch, but they cross them with the records of pharmacies to see what drugs are being sent, the emergency parts of hospitals to see what symptoms patients are entering and some other sources that give us a mugollum of information on which to apply algorithms of machine learning and techniques Big Data to detect patterns and trends (ah,

Don’t you know what that Big data thing is? I’m in and we’ll talk about it another day.)

It’s all right with me… but I want my doctor to let me know if he sees anything weird! (My wife says I’m a little hypochondriac and I’m just missing this.)

Mass and voluntary participation

A few years ago, when a University or Research Institute wanted to do a study on any disease, they had to ask for volunteers. Some volunteers were provided with the medicine or some kind of test, others were given placebo and then the data were crossed and the results that pharmaceutical laboratories applied on the drugs they were developing were getting. Today some of these studies can be automated through the mobile phones we all carry, so the number of volunteers multiplies and the results are much more reliable. Ej

Punto, Stanford University researchers developed the app MyHeart Countsby which data from pulsations are obtained from all people who have the app installed to try to anticipate infarcts and anginas of the chest. The point is, At 24 hours of its publication, 11,000 persons had been installed to give their consent to have these data used in the study. Before the platforms to be able to share these data existed, that same University would have needed 1 year and 50 medical centers to get that same number…

The App had them in 24 hours! The greatest challenge now facing these studies is to revisit the user’s consent as international regulations prevent you from saying ‘come on, take all my data and do whatever you want with them’ But you have to go give your consent one by one for all the studies that want to use them… a brat, come on, it should be something more generic like when you become an organ donor but to make you ‘data donor‘. But considering that for the current

target = «_ blank» > Organic Law for the Protection of Personal Data Health data are high level and must be protected almost with rabid dogs and defended with life, I’m afraid we’re a little far from this..

I want to be a data donor.

I am absolutely convinced that in a few years we will have some legal way to do it. ‘data donor‘ and that these data are shared in a secure and private way, although no longer anonymous. And it will not be anonymous for the benefit to the end user, who will see a clear return and a ‘reward’ for sharing these health data, which currently does not have and prevents technology from improving our health in a pro-active way as it could already be doing.