And now, do-it-yourself health

January 24, 2012

Health-wise, what does the year 2012 hold for us?

Well, 2012 is about taking (health) matters into our own hands, literally speaking. It's about taking charge of our own health, being left to our own devices. According to trendwatching.com, it's about devices (or modern gadgets) and novel apps "increasingly letting consumers discreetly track and manage their health by themselves."

There's DIY home improvement, there's DIY plumbing, there's DIY auto repair, there's a DIY luggage check-in, and there's even a do it yourself divorce service in the US (for couples who can't wait to undo their wedding vows). The DIY trend shows no signs of letting up in 2012.

And now, there's DIY technology-driven health that zeroes in on countless new apps and devices that target consumers whose all-consuming "concern is preventing, examining, improving, monitoring, and managing their own health."

To make this all-important job easy (no fuss, no sweat) for us, Apple's App Store currently offers 9,000 mobile health apps, which include almost 1,500 cardio fitness apps, over 1,300 diet apps, over 1,000 stress and relaxation apps, and over 650 women's health apps. According to MobiHealthNews, by mid-2012, this number is expected to reach 13,000.

Now, those who faithfully monitor their health are spared from unnecessary intrusive and embarrassing trips to the doctor. On the other hand, those who do need medical attention and supervision can avail themselves of "a much more convenient and accessible way for their doctor to keep a remote eye on any troublesome conditions or changes."

Independent market research company Technavio predicts that the global mobile health applications market will reach US$4.1 billion by 2014, up from US$1.7 billion in 2010.

And so, what are some of these devices that are designed to make it easier for people to monitor and manage their own health?

Here are the trends to watch, according to trendwatching.com:

• Jawbone's Up, out only in November 2011, is a wristband + iPhone app personal tracking device that tracks your moving, eating, and sleeping patterns your daily activity (or inactivity). It tells you how much and how well you sleep and silently wakes you up at the ideal time (now, that's the smartest alarm clock in the whole wired world). And here's another absorbing detail: It creates a photo journal of what you eat and how it makes you feel.

• Pain Free Back is an interactive back pain relief product that allows you to enter specific data as you're taken on a guided discovery about your back pain. After that, you learn specific lower back exercises that will help you manage your problem, as though you're doing it with your own personal and very experienced orthopedic physical therapist.

• Hear this: The Play It Down app (for iPhone and iPod) tests your hearing with its fun features. One ot them is the Ear Knob that lets you discover how young (or how old) your ears are, compared with those of your friends and family. Crank it up and compare who can detect the highest frequencies.

• The Digifit Ecosystem helps improve your heart's performance and your health by tracking your cardio, blood pressure, weight, and sleep patterns.

• Withings' Blood Pressure Monitor (with iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) gives you easy and accurate self-measurement of your blood pressure. Data can be sent directly to a doctor or published (confidentially) on the Web.

• Skin Scan (optimized for the Apple iPhone) allows you to scan and monitor your moles over time, to prevent malignant skin cancers. It tells you if you should visit your doctor or dermatologist.

• Lifelens has created a smartphone app to diagnose malaria. Aimed at reducing child malaria mortality rates, this robust mobile diagnostic solution can analyze a magnified image of a drop of blood (captured via a simple finger prick) and identify malarial parasites.

• In October 2011, Ford demonstrated in-car health and wellness smartphone apps that use Ford's SYNC Applink software to enable drivers to access certain mobile health apps to keep track of chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and hay fever, and manage their condition while on the go.

• In July 2011, US-based ad agency SapientNitro launched an augmented reality (AR) app called Lungs to show smokers the damage caused by cigarettes. Users can control settings to reflect their own experience, based on factors such as their age and how many cigarettes they smoke each day.

• In October 2011, AT&T announced it would begin selling clothes embedded with health monitors, able to track the wearer's vital signs like heart rate and body temperature and upload them to a dedicated website. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve.

Surely, these days, health is at the tips of your fingers.

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