I really enjoyed this article, man. You made such a good case that as soon as I was done I clicked on your link and will probably buy your same watch, ha! That's such a shame that the heart rate monitor isn't approved in the US. You're totally right that that's evidence that we need innovation in our regulatory structure.
Thanks a lot! Actually in the US only the blood pressure feature doesn't work but other features (ECG, arrhythmia detection, heart rate, etc.) do work there. And in any case that blood pressure feature isn't that accurate yet. If you have an iPhone, I read that the Apple Watch was better. If you have an Android, then the Samsung Active2 (the one I have) is relatively cheap and quite good. I didn't check other models, do your own research ;) Let me know your opinion if you eventually buy one!
I came back to this great piece after a couple of months because I've been thinking about fitness tracking and how it can help both at the personal, individual level and also feeding into research. Just to explore the trends you're laying out, what if in 5-10 years, the percentage of the population using fitness trackers goes from 20% to 80-90%, and the percentage willing to share their data also increases from 50% to 80-90%? The rate of sharing data could be increased by compensating people for their data. There are already [efforts](https://www.computerworld.com/article/3655950/blockchain-firm-equideum-and-nokia-building-exchange-to-let-patients-sell-healthcare-data.html) underway to do this. It would be a world of ubiquitous, continual clinical trials, benefiting the average person both through health advances and a very low-effort, though probably modest, income opportunity. And this world seems more like a simple extrapolation from current trends than a wild fantasy.
Yeah, I've been using Fitbit for about a year. Thinking about moving to Apple Watch now that I've switched to iPhone. Seems like it's probably the best overall integrated health tracking system.
I really enjoyed this article, man. You made such a good case that as soon as I was done I clicked on your link and will probably buy your same watch, ha! That's such a shame that the heart rate monitor isn't approved in the US. You're totally right that that's evidence that we need innovation in our regulatory structure.
Thanks a lot! Actually in the US only the blood pressure feature doesn't work but other features (ECG, arrhythmia detection, heart rate, etc.) do work there. And in any case that blood pressure feature isn't that accurate yet. If you have an iPhone, I read that the Apple Watch was better. If you have an Android, then the Samsung Active2 (the one I have) is relatively cheap and quite good. I didn't check other models, do your own research ;) Let me know your opinion if you eventually buy one!
I came back to this great piece after a couple of months because I've been thinking about fitness tracking and how it can help both at the personal, individual level and also feeding into research. Just to explore the trends you're laying out, what if in 5-10 years, the percentage of the population using fitness trackers goes from 20% to 80-90%, and the percentage willing to share their data also increases from 50% to 80-90%? The rate of sharing data could be increased by compensating people for their data. There are already [efforts](https://www.computerworld.com/article/3655950/blockchain-firm-equideum-and-nokia-building-exchange-to-let-patients-sell-healthcare-data.html) underway to do this. It would be a world of ubiquitous, continual clinical trials, benefiting the average person both through health advances and a very low-effort, though probably modest, income opportunity. And this world seems more like a simple extrapolation from current trends than a wild fantasy.
I agree! Bright future ahead! :) Do you use a smartwatch / fitness tracker?
Yeah, I've been using Fitbit for about a year. Thinking about moving to Apple Watch now that I've switched to iPhone. Seems like it's probably the best overall integrated health tracking system.