In my latest book, Digilogue: how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customer I write about the Digitised Self, and my experience with Nike+, while running the NYC Marathon in 2011.
This is an example of the trend towards what some pundits called Quantified Self. Increasingly, technology is starting to monitor, measure, and make recommendations based on our analogue behaviours. As a futurist I cannot help but be mesmerised about the possibilities this holds for better health management. One of my clients in the pharmaceutical industry asked me about which digital tools I use to monitor my health, and how I attain my health and fitness goals, so I thought I'd share the some the Digilogue tools I use at the intersection of futurist and health in this blog.
23andMe is a biotest which sequences and analyses your DNA. In this case I have recently left my saliva sample, and am awaiting my results to show me my genetic predispositions to certain diseases, my ethnic background, whether old family tales of milkmen might be true, and how Neanderthal I might be.
This to my is very Digilogue. The data monitoring starts providing a digital and easily monitored mirror on your analogue behaviours, life styles, and genetic make up. Something that was totally inconceivable and cost-prohibitive 10 years ago. 23andMe charged me $ 99 to code my DNA sequence. The initial Human Genome Project was a $ 3 billion USD project, and now this mapping is a consumer product. Amazing!
This sort of feedback has been priceless for me in following a particular exercise and diet regime in 2013, and as you can see from the digital data points below, I am starting to hit my weight targets (although I had a spike in weight over the weekend as a deliberate result of overeating while friends were in town - something that the data points clearly captured...)
Another tool that I am sold on as you know is Nike+ and the Nike FuelBand. It helped me run the NYC 2011 Marathon in a very Digilogue way, but I also love the interface which visually provides feedback and comparisons on how I am doing.
As you can tell, the days when I go jogging or play squash I attain my goals, and on days when I travel or remain sedentary I don't. Yes, we can get a sense of this from our analogue gut feel - no pun intended - but this sort of feedback tells a digital data oriented individual like me that I need to pick up my analogue game from time to time.
So what you may ask - increasingly patients and people are taking their health and personal matters into their own hands. This is a mobile and health revolution that any company - pharmaceutical, outdoor equipment, vitamin, medical device etc - need to be aware of and utilise to ensure better health outcomes to the populace. It also means that we as consumers and patients are expecting more.
*Please note that the above is not an endorsement of the veracity or medical usefulness of any of these devices or tests, but are a personal reflection of what I use based on my unique circumstances. In my own digilogue eccentricity I have found these devices helpful in attaining my fitness and health goals. You should of course consult a GP or doctor to make your own decisions.