Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Wearing a health monitor practically 24 hours a day is now possible. Our physicians can know everything about our life style and work with us on our health. But do we want to be that healthy?

Computers are smaller and lighter and use less battery power and all those things that engineers have been working on for decades. One result is the wearable computer.

We can sew tiny computers and such into our clothes. These things can monitor our daily activities and and transmit them to our physicians. We don’t have to report anything. Our doctor would send us medicines or email us advice based on the mountain of data received from our activity-reporting computers. See this story for a discussion of such.

If we could create such a system securely, and I doubt we can do so, I have a question:

Does anyone really want their doctor to know what they are doing all the time?

I agree that health would improve, but really, do you want to receive this email from your doctor:

You’ve gained three pounds this week. If the weight doesn’t go away next week, I will setup an appointment for you.

or

Your blood pressure rises sharply every evening at 7. Stop watching baseball games on TV. Instead, go for long walks.

or

You are stopping at 7 11 on the way home from work every day. Your blood sugar is out of control. Stop the snacks and wait until you’re at home to eat dinner.

How healthy do we want to be?