One Designer’s View on Personal Health Care

A new wave of technological innovations is driving yet another revolution in healthcare. New understanding of the human genome, machine learning, improved sensors, smart devices and connectivity opens unprecedented opportunities for health professionals to provide better care and people to take better care of themselves.

• Do you know your blood type or your spouse’s blood type?

• Did anyone in your family have lymphoma or high blood pressure?

• Do you know if you’ve ever had chickenpox?

If you didn’t know the answer to any of these questions, where would have gone to find out?

In today’s age of information and smart technology, one might expect the important answers to our health questions would be available at our fingertips. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our health information were available in one place and available to us whenever needed?

I’ve spent over two decades in design and many of those years looking at the challenges with healthcare and creating better solutions and experiences for people. To do this, people need to own their personal health information. The future of personal health lies in a personal health hub built upon four pillars of health innovation:

• Trusted Health Information

• Genetic Health History

• Smart Personal Health Technology and Data

• Smart Professional Health Technology and Data

Serve Up Trusted Health Information
Being healthy is not a destination but a constant evolving journey. he right information needs to be presented to people at the right time. It would be great to have a trusted source know where I am in my health journey and to provide relevant information and guidance.

People also need to feel that any health information they receive is vetted and accurate.The web, while abundant with content, offers little trustworthy information. I never felt more fear and helplessness than when I had to Google the word ‘Adenocarcinoma’. It was the diagnosis from my sister’s oncologist and the answers I got from web search just confused me more.  While 2019 offers more reputable content from websites like the Mayo Clinic, NIH, WebMD, they often have suspect sponsors and an overabundance of randomly organized information and jargon that cause confusion and concern. Simple, trusted information should be available and pushed to us when we need it most.

Genetic Health History
Genetic information can help people make informed decisions about managing their health care and take steps for monitoring or treatment. Like many, I wish that I was better informed about my family’s health history. From whispers in the hallway, I believe my maternal grandmother had diabetes and my paternal grandfather had lung cancer. I’m assuming that it would be helpful for me to know my family’s health information and for my niece to know that her mother had cancer. All this rich family health information should be in our health records, but its  not. Families’ health information is trapped in limbo by archaic health records, incompatible technology systems, and privacy laws meant to protect people but may also be causing harm.

Genetic testing is now widely available to consumers through companies like 23andMe and Color Genomics and its value is still being uncovered. The promise of personalized medicine and targeted therapies are emerging but we must find effective ways to aggregate health data and share it.

Consumer Smart Health Technologies and Personal Health Data
New smart technologies are continuing to evolve in collecting data and providing meaningful information to better manage one’s health.

Pioneering companies like Omada Health combine health data, coaching, and community to  affect specific goals like weight loss, diabetes, or building healthy habits. The practice of monitoring various metrics like activity, sleep, heart rate, weight, blood pressure by companies like Fitbit and Apple is becoming more ubiquitous and much work is being done to make the tools easier to use and the data more meaningful and actionable.

Professional Smart Health Technologies and Health Data
Finally, smart tools and technologies are making their way into healthcare institutions to support patients and also provide much needed assistance to doctors, nurses, and technicians. Using sensors in patient environments and connected bedside devices doctors can better monitor patients and more efficiently administer care. Connected smart monitoring devices and new communication technologies make remote care more practical and feasible. These technologies support caregivers in taking care of loved ones who live in another city by letting them monitor movement, vitals, medication, and other critical functions and supporting improved intervention and communication.

Bigger impact is yet to come with AI, Machine Learning and Big Data utilization. These technologies provide value by simply helping doctors take notes and fill charts to analyzing massive amounts of health information and images to detect patterns, suggest diagnosis and recommend potential treatments.

What Comes Next?
A new revolution in healthcare innovation is currently happening, but there’s still much to be done. People are still looking for a trusted source of health information that provides the proper information, available in a way that’s easy to navigate and understand. Smart connected technologies for healthcare professionals and consumers will provide unprecedented support and information to help physicians and people take better care of themselves. Understanding genetic information is leading to personalized care like targeted diets, supplements and exercises and even targeted medication and treatments.

All these directions have the potential for great positive impact on people’s personal healthcare. The real impact will come when people’s personal and family health history can be consolidated, accessible and presented in informative, meaningful, and engaging ways.