Get excited, Star Trek fans and self-tracking enthusiasts: your real-life tricorder is now available for pre-order.Scanadu, a startup based at the NASA Ames Research Center, has been working on a non-invasive tricorder for over two years. By the end of 2012, the company had a prototype ready--a handheld Yves Behar-designed device that tracks pulse transit time (to measure blood pressure), temperature, ECG, oximetry, heart rate, and breathing rate. A 10 second scan of a person’s temple yields data that has a 99% accuracy rate.
I think that is a terrific device, and I want one. I think that if people were to use this device on a regular basis, they would gain insight into their health and probably make some good changes. However, for that to happen, companies like these need to educate consumers about the things they're reading, and how they relate to the different bodily systems/hormones etc. Data without understanding is usually more dangerous than no data at all - since it leads to improper interventions that can harm more than help. So overall, cool project with potentially good ramifications for the world. Here's what I'm concerned about: I worry that devices like these will just be a perfect "in" for drug companies to prescribe more and more medications to consumers. If you get consumers thinking about their "health" and whether or not it's good on a daily basis, chances are that they'll start to notice more and more things that were always there, but not necessarily problems. I am almost 100% sure that Scanadu will work closely with drug companies (well, they're working with doctors, of course, so more prescriptions will likely be the result anyways). So, while this may be a great first attempt at getting consumers involved in their health-care, it may just create more hypochondria and become the perfect in-home advocate for Merck etc. I also worry that these devices will make the power dynamic between doctor and patient even more substantial. If patents are confronted with data they don't know how to properly interpret, because of lack of substantial biological/physiological education, they'll just come to think about and rely upon their doctors even more. That's the last thing we need. We need patients to learn about these things, and take charge of their health. Is there a better way of doing that than Scanadu? I'm not sure. It's more likely that patients will get interested in it via their own data. However... that's unproven.
