Moving to personalized and preventive wellbeing through AI

AI-enabled tools and wearables are revolutionizing the healthcare industry by providing people with convenient and accurate ways to monitor their health. These devices use advanced algorithms and sensors to track various health metrics, such as heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, and activity levels, and provide valuable insights into one's overall health and well-being.

Smartwatches equipped with AI-enabled health tracking features can monitor heart rate variability, which can provide insights into a person's stress levels and overall cardiovascular health. Similarly, they can also detect the attack, provide an early warning for it, and create an asthma management system that can help doctors understand what the right dose of medicine will be. Patients can also go about their days without worrying about an asthma attack, take medicines on time, and understand their other health parameters for well-being in general.

Just as brands endorse advertisements on the web and mobile basis the search, purchase history, and locations visited, in the same way, AI and machine algorithms can be used to recommend insights based on our habits, environmental factors (pollution, diet, exercise), and health history. The innovations in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables hold the potential to carry around AI-enabled tools that collect environmental and individual health data to identify patterns for patients to detect early signs of complications, the onset of health issues, and insights to prevent them. Emerging technology is now meaningfully finding its way into our daily lives. AI is here to make our lives richer with insights and knowledge, which will arm us to carry our routines more effectively.

Empowering people to take charge of their health

The pandemic has led to greater health consciousness among Indians, with most of them taking a more proactive approach through technology to feel in control of their health as it provides them with specialized and personalized treatments. Most diseases like hypertension, asthma monitoring, diabetes, congestive heart failure and depression and anxiety, can be monitored with AI-enabled wearables.

• It is expected that AI will not only improve our ability to proactively detect the onset of acute events, but it will also facilitate in-
• Easing diagnosis of common conditions
• Creating positive habits or behaviors
• Reducing the number of visits to the doctor
• Creating a shift from hospital to home-based care through telehealth
• Personalizing and optimizing treatments via improved insights

I foresee the prevalence and adoption of digital products and technologies to manage daily routines will accelerate wellbeing management. Such a lifestyle shift is being embraced by consumers, employers, and providers, and is only going to prosper more.

Privacy, Accountability, and Equity

Due to the rise of wearable technology and devices, data is being collected at an unprecedented rate today. A report estimates that 41.6 billion connected devices will be generating 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) of data by the year 2025. As the quantity of data increases, and so do the methods of collecting it easier and more affordable, this raises concerns about privacy, accountability, and equity.

• Privacy, data security, and confidentiality should be addressed through rigorous consent creation. People should be able to revoke consent and request their data to be deleted.
• The development of AI algorithms should ensure that it performs the tasks it has been developed for. There needs to be utmost patient safety assured by AI models by letting people know what data goes inside and will be done with it.
• In case of a mistake, both accountability and redressal should be guaranteed.
• Fostering health equity means that everyone should have a fair chance at being healthy. AI should be designed to ensure equitable use and access.
• AI Models should be required to provide services that are interoperable so that different platforms and applications can seamlessly use these insights for better care, while consistently communicating with health systems so that the entire data of a person is maintained.
• While we explore the benefits of wellbeing management driven by wearables and AI, we must also discover the possible unconstructive effects of too much exposure to health data. Constant tracking might lead to anxiety and stress on discovering variations in metrics, leading to further deterioration of health. Hence specific devices should be prescribed for specific medical conditions with ways to cope with changes in their symptoms.
  

Data ownership and interoperability

Now follows the question of data ownership. Right now, all the collected data is scattered and present in the possession of hospitals, health-tech and big data companies. A large amount of data from each relevant step of your journey is collected through sources like wearables, phone etc.

While there are many policies governing the collection, storage, and usage of this data (GDPR, HIPAA), there is a need for increased transparency. Consumers should be given access to the same data the doctor will have access to, along with the ability to download it and thus take better control of their health.

Summing up my thoughts

With the wearable AI market is projected to grow from USD 11.5 billion in 2018 to USD 42.4 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 29.7%, personalized wellbeing management is truly poised for its time in the sun.

The integration of AI-enabled tools and wearables into healthcare is helping people take control of their health and wellbeing by providing them with personalized and actionable insights. As technology continues to advance, these devices will undoubtedly play an increasingly significant role in promoting preventive healthcare and improving health outcomes.

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