iot and the connected human
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What is the Connected Human? The Internet of Self Outlined
By Tom Howells, contributing writer, Fraud & Technology Wire and Marketing Specialist, Argyle Data November 6, 2015 The connected human is the most visible manifestation of the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution. The popularity of fitness trackers has skyrocketed in the past few years, with 31 million wrist monitors sold in just the past year. The aim of IoT for the connected human is to improve health and wellness whilst increasing productivity.
While the current iteration of the connected self focuses on wellness and productivity, the biggest potential with the technology is for monitoring and treating chronic illnesses. In order for these new technologies to be effective, there has to be a certain level of interoperability. In order for your Fitbit to be useful, it has to connect to your smart phone. This way, you can see the number of steps you have taken that day and then compare it to previous efforts from the week, month and year. You may even want to motivate yourself by sharing your progress with a group of friends or family. In short interoperability matters. Devices for the Increasingly Connected Human Wearables are devices that can be worn or carried. The most common types that we see today are wristbands like Fitbits and smartwatches like the Apple Watch, with 130 million people estimated to be using fitness trackers today. These devices can range in functionality. While the most basic can track how many steps you have taken, the most advanced can measure the user’s heart rate, skin temperature and sleep.
As technology evolves, inexpensive wearables should be able to measure an even broader range of indicators, like perspiration and blood oxygen levels. When these new functionalities are added to wearables, smartwatches will be able to move away from just supporting wellness, and they will be able to start monitoring and being used to treat illnesses.
Implantables, Injectables and Ingestibles The most common of these three are currently implantables, often referred to as implantable medical devices, or IMDs. They can do things like monitor blood sugar levels in diabetics and release a dose of insulin when blood sugar levels spike. Devices like implanted pacemakers can alert doctors when a patient is having a heart problem by sending a signal to the doctor via Wi-‐Fi.
The full benefits of these types of treatment haven’t quite yet been realized, yet they
have the potential to replace many invasive surgeries in the future. They would provide a safer alternative that would have shorter recovery times and be less invasive than traditional surgical procedures. The future of these devices takes the form of nanobots and smart pills that operate inside the human body. They are inserted through an injection and will be able to perform tasks from monitoring oxygen levels in the blood to killing exclusively cancer cells. If they are widely adopted within the next 10 years they could significantly increase the projected impact of IoT for the connected self.
Non-‐Wearable Measurement Devices Non-‐wearables are devices that measure and transmit data periodically but aren’t attached to humans at all times. Patients with high blood pressure can have a blood pressure cuff at home that sends a reminder periodically to their phone that they need to check their blood pressure. This reading would then be sent to their doctor. Currently many in-‐home monitoring devices are too expensive for widespread adoption. However, as technology evolves and the costs decrease, it is anticipated that these devices will become commonplace. Applications for the Increasingly Connected Human Currently, doctors take episodic readings of their patients. They get this information when patients visit a doctor’s office, take tests or self report information. This method is expensive as these tests have to be administered in a hospital-‐like setting and only offer a limited time-‐window of information. The connected human provides doctors with continuous information about their patients. Real-‐time readings can alert doctors when patients are skipping their medication or when a patient is at increased risk of suffering an illness that would require them to be hospitalized. With timely intervention, hospitalization can be avoided.
The connected self also aims to increase productivity. It is estimated that a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep, which equates to $63 billion a year in lost productivity. Wearables can now track the amount of sleep wearers get, so with the right incentive plan in place, employees can increase the amount of sleep they get on a nightly basis and with that increase their productivity.
How Big the Market for the Connected Human Will Be The overall impact of IoT on human health and wellness could reach $1.6 trillion by 2025. The biggest economic benefit will be from treating patients with chronic diseases. Managing chronic diseases remotely will reduce the cost of treatment, while increasing the quality of life for patients and increasing the length of their lives.
The economic benefits will differ depending on the economic environment. Up to 75% of the economic effects will be felt in developed economies, where the cost treatment is already twice that of developing countries. Developing economies will predominantly benefit from expanding the reach of pre-‐existing healthcare options. Pop-‐up clinics containing IoT devices will allow doctors to treat far more patients than they originally could.
The Risks for the Connected Human While these devices undeniably have the potential to improve countless people’s lives, there are some drawbacks. GPS trackers in wearables provide excellent motivation to work out, but they also invite stalkers. The security barriers protecting these devices are so low that even a novice hacker can track your location. Features on the iPhone like “Find Friends” make it so easy that you don’t even need to hack the devices.
There is also the possibility that health insurance companies start using our GPS data to determine rates for health insurance, just like auto insurance is currently doing with their “black box” to reward safer drivers. They could start to charge a higher rate to customers who don’t frequently exercise. The system may start off as an opt-‐in service, but it could become the norm if they price out customers who decline to opt in to the tracking service.
An even scarier thought is the ability to hack IMDs. Researchers at the universities of Massachusetts and Washington have managed to hack a heart defibrillator. Once hacked, they were able to administer an electric shock to the heart. A strong enough shock is enough to kill a normally functioning heart.
The connected self offers tremendous opportunities to improve users’ health; we have to ensure that these devices are secure to protect personal information regarding our health and the devices that are keeping us healthy. Sources: McKinsey Global Institute, “The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the Hype” Marc Goodman, “Future Crimes” http://www.iflscience.com/health-‐and-‐medicine/dna-‐nanobots-‐will-‐seek-‐and-‐destroy-‐cancer-‐cells http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/20/us/dick-‐cheney-‐gupta-‐interview/ http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/01/the-‐high-‐cost-‐of-‐bad-‐sleep-‐63-‐billion-‐per-‐year/ * This article is part of a new series called “A Guided Tour to the Internet of Things in the SIM Connected World”. The next article will focus on the connected home. Fraud Technology Wire is sponsored by Argyle Data