Cheers,
Rajiv

Thanks for the clarification on Zume Life’s strategy. I think your point that often biometric data is not enough — that we, patients, are not the sum of our biometric data — is especially important for data collection, remote monitoring and patient engagement.

Brian

At Zume Life we did not choose “less automation”. Rather, we choose to start with the current method of user-entered biometric data, rather than automatic sensors, because we need a solution that works for people TODAY. As Chris Wigley notes, he already has a lot of equipment –a pulse oximeter, BP monitor, spirometer, scale, etc. We believe it is very important that people, such as Chris, be able to continue to use the devices they have. It is unreasonable, we believe, to insist that people purchase all new equipment and/or to limit our service to only the few who have the latest technology.

Over time, we will definitely add functionality to automatically collect data from sensors, which would likely be more convenient for those people who have the latest sensors.

I whole-heartedly support two other points that Chris Wigley makes. The first is that there is value to the individual in taking a moment to note his biometric (weight, BP, etc) as he transposes the data. Not necessarily to dwell on every data point, but rather from being aware of the metric. Much as my friends with Prius cars have benefited from seeing their current gas mileage on the dashboard (and so being aware of how they’re driving).

The second is this silly notion that patients can not be trusted to enter their data accurately, that they might lie. If you can’t trust the person on this, you can hardly trust them on anything else about their health — whether they’re taking their meds, how they are feeling, etc. There is of course the possibility of data-entry errors. If each and every data point is critical, then the person’s health is probably so strained that “self-care” technologies like those from Zume Life are probably inappropriate anyway. Otherwise, occasional outlier data points can safely be ignored (or, as technology improves, the system could immediately ask the person if the entry is correct).

Finally, my concern about the conference’s focus on automated data collection was driven not so much by the issue of taking the patient out of the loop in the way discussed above, but rather the fact that these sensors at best capture only a limited range of important data. To truly understand the person’s health, we also need to understand many aspects of their health, their feelings/moods/pains/etc., their activities, and their context/environment (physical, social, environmental, occupational, etc.) that are likely not amenable to automatic sensors. Only a person can tell you these other important things. As an ex-NASA scientist, I know how hard it is to figure out what happened when something goes wrong with modern airplanes, even though we have zillions of sensors and tons of data. Our bodies are far more complex and our biometric sensors far fewer and inaccurate. Absolutely let’s cheer all sensor advancements! Let’s just not get carried away in thinking that we can rely on these sensors to tell us everything we need to know.

Regards,
Rajiv

Not to speak for Rajiv, but it seemed from our discussion that he would agree with you and designed his Zume Life service and portal with less automation because he wanted to maximize patient engagement.

Great discussion — thanks for your comments.

Brian

Maybe you explain more in detail what you mean: as connected patient you are looking for some automation that helps you in your diagnostic ability. On the other hand you say that it would reduce your own empowerment over your disease. Do I understand correctly that you would like to master the data yourself and not have it send automatically to the care professionals?

I wonder if automating data collection would not be very nice and helpful for yourself as well: you could also display graphs and trends.

Is your opion characteristic for your fellow patients or do you think that the majority would have different opinions?

It should know what medications (and supplements) I am taking, track my exercise and have a good basic diagnostic ability – enough to tell me I really need to see my doctor as my ’signs’ are deteriorating, or that I should be exercising more. It should talk to/be accessible to my healthcare provider and any EHR system used by the provider, and be as secure as my contact with my bank account.

The argument that I might not input correct data is specious – when I talk to my doctor he ASKS me what my symptoms are before he takes any action at all.

I think that automating any of the data collection would not only waste money but also reduce my own empowerment over my disease.