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Medicine Earth Software Science Hardware Technology

Study Shows Wearable Sensors Can Tell When You Are Getting Sick (phys.org) 55

Posted by BeauHD from the turn-your-head-and-cough dept.
skids quotes a report from Phys.Org: Wearable sensors that monitor heart rate, activity, skin temperature and other variables can reveal a lot about what is going on inside a person, including the onset of infection, inflammation and even insulin resistance, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Altogether, the team collected nearly 2 billion measurements from 60 people, including continuous data from each participant's wearable biosensor devices and periodic data from laboratory tests of their blood chemistry, gene expression and other measures. Participants wore between one and eight commercially available activity monitors and other monitors that collected more than 250,000 measurements a day. The team collected data on weight; heart rate; oxygen in the blood; skin temperature; activity, including sleep, steps, walking, biking and running; calories expended; acceleration; and even exposure to gamma rays and X-rays. "We want to study people at an individual level," said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of genetics. "We have more sensors on our cars than we have on human beings," said Snyder. In the future, he said, he expects the situation will be reversed and people will have more sensors than cars do.

Slashdot reader skids adds: "IT security being in the state it is, will we face the same decision about our actual lives that we already face about our social lives/identities: either risk very real hazards of misuse of your personal data, or get left behind?
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Study Shows Wearable Sensors Can Tell When You Are Getting Sick More

Study Shows Wearable Sensors Can Tell When You Are Getting Sick

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  • FIRST (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Do you wanna your boss to know when you are sick???

    • do you want your GOP care plan to find out?

    • Yes, I do want my boss to know when I'm sick. I'm curious what you're getting at.

      I let my boss know when I'm sick because a) I might not come in to the office, or might not get work done, b) I don't want to pass the ilness to my boss by them spending much time in my office, looking at a screen together (with our faces side-by-side), etc. and c) if they notice I seem a little off, sluggish, or even anti-social, they'll know why.

      Are you suggesting that you lie to your boss and take sick time when you're not s

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Of course, so shallow. Have you considered the other possibility? Being slightly sick, will cause you staying home, for a long period of time.... which result of you being fired, for no reason of course.
        Good look finding a job, as your future boss would have access to the same data, and who in his mind want to hire sick person!!!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Lennie ( 16154 )

          Let me guess you live in the US ?

          In Europe we do things differently.

        • > Being slightly sick, will cause you staying home, for a long period of time.... which result of you being fired, for no reason of course.

          And if I did *not* tell them I'm sick they wouldn't notice that I stayed home for a few weeks?

          Also I'm confused, you said "staying home, for a long period of time.... which result of you being fired, for no reason of course." Is this a new form of English or did you say the reason the person had to be replaced was because they stayed home for a long period of tim

      • Re:Yes, that's why I tell them (Score:4)

        by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Friday January 13, 2017 @12:57AM (#53659145)

        Yes, I do want my boss to know when I'm sick. I'm curious what you're getting at.

        I think they are getting at you not being aware of places where they fire people just for being sick.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        "Are you suggesting that you lie to your boss and take sick time when you're not sick?"

        And what if you are sick and it's an ailment that the sensors don't pick up, that could be very awkward and end up with your boss calling you a liar and telling you to get to work when you really are ill.

      • You're living in Europe, right? In the USA, a different kind of capitalism rules, and there are quite a few dystopian scenarios that I can come up with, if that kind of monitoring is not strictly regulated by privacy laws. On a company wide level, the aggregate health level becomes another key performance indicator. Your employed can and will analyze just how sick their workforce can be before productivity drops. Workload can now be increased and work conditions / safety standards lowered until that sweet

      • I think they're suggesting that if HR fires people who are "presick", they'll get a (possibly under the table) discount on health insurance, or other similar issues.

  • This is an interesting summary. And I do think that an intelligent and wider use of sensors will eventually become the killer app for wearables, because everyone wants to be healthy.
    I did specifically mention the Apple Watch, because it is known that the company has hired people with PHDs on various non-invasive sensors like blood oxygen, but also and importantly, blood sugar, and more. I looked up this tech, and it seems it is not ready for prime time, you'd want it to work out of the box and for everyone

    • Re:Sensors will be the killer app for Apple Watch (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Thursday January 12, 2017 @11:26PM (#53658889) Homepage

      Everyone may want to be healthy, but everyone may

      - not want anyone else knowing about how healthy you are or are not
      - not want the data uploaded into 'the cloud'
      - not even want to know what they are doing is unhealthy

      Here be Dragons.

      • Everyone may want to be healthy, but everyone may

        - not want anyone else knowing about how healthy you are or are not - not want the data uploaded into 'the cloud' - not even want to know what they are doing is unhealthy

        Here be Dragons.

        As a diagnostic tool when visiting the doctor? Sure. But as a full time wearable - that's insane. And all of this needs massive HIPPA restraint.

        Can you imagine the ads we would be served? "Hello there value customer! We see your Temperature has gone up slightly and your heart rate is elevated" This would be a good time to try some Halls Mentho-Lyptus cough drops, or Alka Seltzer plus. We'll just dispatch na Amazon drone to your house, and you'll be well on your way to feelgood town in short order.

        Or

  • Pfff! (Score:3)

    by no-body ( 127863 ) on Thursday January 12, 2017 @11:05PM (#53658819)

    If I get sick, I know it myself. Don't need no App nor sensor, got enough sensors and Apps builtin!

  • An idiot with a lot of data, that is. I'm not saying sensors can't help us, but for the general public (that is, non-medical cases), I'd expect these to be as useful as the sleep-ware that tells you if you had good sleep last night. Most people, if getting sick or having slept poorly, will know it already. You could use the same argument for heartbeat sensors when exercising - it's cool and all, but for the layman it's pretty pointless.

    The danger here of course, if being such an integrated part of everyday

  • I'm getting the impression... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by iMadeGhostzilla ( 1851560 ) on Friday January 13, 2017 @01:32AM (#53659221)

    From scanning the paper briefly is that those are people who would be really thrilled if they had actually discovered something useful and they hope this can lead to important new work, presumably with them being asked to follow up on it. It's almost like a marketing piece. "It is possible that the use of wearables will lead to false alarms and overdiagnosis of disease. The number of false alarms will depend upon the threshold that is set, which can be personalized." It doesn't say how it could be personalized, which sounds critical for a claim like that. "Overall, we envision that these devices could be particularly powerful for individuals who are responsible for the health of others (i.e., parents and caregivers), and perhaps also for those who have historically limited health care access, including groups with low income and/or remote geography." We didn't really check with these people, but we're sure it could work for them, and them, and also them!

    I hope I'm wrong, and that someone more knowledgeable here can confirm this was good research. Because if not, it would be downright irresponsible to suggest burdening people with sensors for an outcome that could be not just not useful but possibly harmful. That would fall under "academic prostitution". Again I'm hoping this is just my ignorance and laziness to read the article carefully.

  • "misuse of your personal data" - Well, that's not going to happen. No insurance company will want to now your approved sensor data score before calculating your fees, copays and deductibles and they won't ever give penalties for not wearing your sensors. No lending company will want to know your score before financing your car, house, etc. and calculating your rates. No company will want to know your score before hiring you for the long or short term or estimating work capability or endurance. No airline wi

  • I can tell I'm getting sick without sensors, generally.

    And it's a fuckton cheaper.

  • We already have all these sensors built in. No need to add them on the outside. The problem is the operator either isn't aware of the messages or tells itself lies to create a different explanation.

  • In the Continuum tv show, this device existed, called the Halo.
    Will this infringe on our privacy?
    http://thevarguy.com/computer-... [thevarguy.com]

  • "We have more sensors on our cars than we have on human beings," said Snyder.

    I'm pretty sure I have more sensors in my little finger than there are in any car.

  • What kind of statement is that? Of course we do. And how does he propose to power all of these sensors? Silly person.

  • H+ (Score:2)

    by mcswell ( 1102107 )

    Perhaps they should call it H+. You know, Health plus...

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