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Kevin Fong explores the boom in health-related apps and gadgets which promise to help us live longer, healthier lives. Fong accompanies London’s Air Ambulance crew to the scene of an emergency. The crew use an advanced portable monitoring unit to keep track of a patient’s vital signs en route to the hospital. Self-monitoring devices are now widely available, but what impact are these likely to have on medicine? Blaine Price from the Open University demonstrates a range of commercial products from pedometers to pulse oximeters. The technology is so advanced that it equals that of medical instruments from the 1990s. The pair then meet three volunteers – Pam, Cathy and Celia – who, together with Fong, have agreed to measure their step count and sleep patterns for the programme. Brett Davison, Head of Physical Performance for the England Rugby 7s team demonstrates the advanced monitoring equipment he uses to pick up on players’ injuries while they train. Brett can even predict illnesses before symptoms appear. The volunteers report on their progress; all three were surprised to discover they were less active than expected and have started to exercise more. Fong claims using the pedometer has made him more competitive. He visits Dr Eric Topol of Scripps Health who demonstrates monitors designed to work with mobile technology for home use, including a heart monitor and noninvasive glucometer. Topol views such devices as revolutionary because information is sent directly to the patient rather than being relayed via the doctor. This type of 24/7 monitoring may also help prevent diseases from developing or worsening. Professor Larry Smarr has been dubbed the ‘most monitored man in the world’. He regularly measures his own weight, steps, sleep, urine, saliva, blood, and even stools. By mapping the data against healthy limits he was able to self-diagnose a life threatening disease. Fong then visits MIT’s Media Lab where Alex Pentland analyses Fong’s socialisation, focus and activity levels, gleaned from a mobile phone app. Amazingly, the app can detect the onset of flu with 80% accuracy, so could potentially be used to track the spread of pandemics. The volunteers reconvene with Fong and Price to find out their results. There were some interesting discoveries; Cathy found that drinking halved her amount of deep sleep. Each of them pushed themselves to achieve the goal of 10,000 steps. This then, is perhaps the most important role of self-monitoring; encouraging healthy changes in behaviour.

Horizon.

Horizon

Monitor me.

Box file containing items of ephemera in acid free sleeves. Includes a charity stamp: 'Pour de l'air pur' (Mutualité Postale, ca. 1920?), City of Takapuna Health inspector - pollution, environmental monitoring (1984).

General Collections Ephemera Collection

Environmental ephemera. Box 1.

Google : what could go wrong with google speech-to-text?

8 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 15 x 21 cm

Phones for Parkinson's : a new way to help us say goodbye to Parkinson's / Parkinson's UK.

Sense about science.

Sense about science

18 pages : color illustrations, portraits ; 30 cm.

Making sense of radiation : a guide to radiation and itts health effects.

Red Cross ephemera. Box 1.

[Envelope for recycling old mobile phones to raise money for the British Red Cross Society].

Communication choices : for deaf or hard of hearing people / BT.

1 print : lithograph, printed in colours ; sheet 59 x 42 cm

A portable telephone from which emerge frequently asked questions about HIV/AIDS. Colour lithograph by Gebr. Silvestri, 200-.

Risk literacy and the public : MMR, air pollution and mobile phones : final report for the Department of Health, January 2003 / by Judith Petts [and others].

The programme is split into two parts. The first is a discussion about BSE and its human version, new variant CJD, comparing them to similar diseases and assessing the results of current research into such diseases. The second half of the programme looks at the possibility of genetically engineering trees to make mobile phone towers.

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Monitor me.

Environmental ephemera. Box 1.

Google : what could go wrong with google speech-to-text?

Phones for Parkinson's : a new way to help us say goodbye to Parkinson's / Parkinson's UK.

Making sense of radiation : a guide to radiation and itts health effects.

[Envelope for recycling old mobile phones to raise money for the British Red Cross Society].

Communication choices : for deaf or hard of hearing people / BT.

A portable telephone from which emerge frequently asked questions about HIV/AIDS. Colour lithograph by Gebr. Silvestri, 200-.

Risk literacy and the public : MMR, air pollution and mobile phones : final report for the Department of Health, January 2003 / by Judith Petts [and others].

BSE.

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More filters

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Monitor me.

Environmental ephemera. Box 1.

Google : what could go wrong with google speech-to-text?

Phones for Parkinson's : a new way to help us say goodbye to Parkinson's / Parkinson's UK.

Making sense of radiation : a guide to radiation and itts health effects.

[Envelope for recycling old mobile phones to raise money for the British Red Cross Society].

Communication choices : for deaf or hard of hearing people / BT.

A portable telephone from which emerge frequently asked questions about HIV/AIDS. Colour lithograph by Gebr. Silvestri, 200-.

Risk literacy and the public : MMR, air pollution and mobile phones : final report for the Department of Health, January 2003 / by Judith Petts [and others].

BSE.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

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