Technology for better health and wellness

Mandanna Dilip, Program Management, Sales & Marketing, ABOVE Solutions elaborates how technology has transformed healthcare delivery

Communications, businesses, education, science, travel are some of the many facets of everyday life that technology has transformed. Today, without technology (for most of us) the only thing we can have is the air we breathe, which in a few years probably will also be produced using technology. 80 per cent of our basic needs involves technology.

For the longest time, technology and health were associated together only in hospitals and clinics. For a layman, to be able to monitor his heart rate, ECG, diabetes, etc. in the comfort of his home was but a dream. Visiting a hospital for such basic clinical measures will soon become passé, considering the wide variety of wearable medical devices available for this very purpose. Continuous monitoring is now possible remotely with reports being shared with family members across seas. For instance, insulin shots can be taken after blood sugar levels have been measured via a device and fluctuating patient heart rates once recorded can be instantly mailed to the consulting family physician for review. All this clearly highlights the manner in which technology has given us a heads up on how to take better care of ourselves amidst growing stress, lack of movement, and pollution.

Studies or research elucidate some basic points that we need to keep in mind in order to live a healthy life. Much has come from the old school of thought (Ayurveda for example) supported by recent studies in science, regarding the importance of sleep, nutrition, stress (heart rate), and exercise in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. All these can be monitored on a daily basis and with 85-90 per cent accuracy. This ensures that our health is taken care of with the added advantage of reduced medical bills.

While technology exists to help us improvise our health and wellness, the key is to be able to take complete advantage of this solution, and focus on how we should get and stay healthy.

• Adapt and learn how to create and live in a healthy environment: It could be at our home, at work, or on the road. Long hours of sitting, watching television, constant usage of gadgets reduce the blood flow and cause shallow breaths. The solution is rather simple. At work, get a desk which leaves you no choice but to stand, instead of taking the car to work – ride a bicycle, skip watching television soaps and step out to get some fresh air. All of these are of course in today’s time easier said than done, but is it really that impossible? Making an effort to keep moving, watching what you eat and drink, calming yourself down during a high stress situation. Simple steps and the battle is half won. Just being aware of yourself in a certain environment can lead you to become healthier.
• It’s only going to get more digitised tomorrow: Each data point collected from varied healthcare devices can become the very foundation of analysing different aspects of your health, right from reading and understanding what is normal and what is not.

1. Monitoring your health data is gradually moving from devices to ‘smart garments’; clothes with technology woven in to measure and interact with your body and provide real time feedback by continuously connecting with your surrounding and communicating any change to the digital world.
2. Smart pill bottles send real time alerts by glowing, beeping, sharing mails/ text messages as a reminder to ensure that patients take medicine at the right time every day without any manual intervention.

• Take advantage of technology: With devices which can monitor our sleep, heart rate, number of calories consumed and burnt, kilometres walked in a day – technology is providing us with an opportunity to understand ourselves better and see how best we can monitor our health. Constant reminders, motivational music playlists that change with your mood, seeking help from communities are some of the ways for us to improve our lifestyle and try to stay off medicines as much as we can.

Healthcare tomorrow will involve more remote doctor-patient interactions, cost effective medical solutions available across varied ailments, emergencies avoided with patients being informed beforehand of possible issues such as a heart attack basis the data collected remotely by hospitals.

However, technology can be a double-edged sword. Excessive use of phones, computers which emit radiations, blue light which causes variation in your sleep pattern and increases stress levels or affects your appetite. One of the many tricks is to use technology judiciously and not make ourselves entirely dependent on it. Rightly said by Dr Harry Greenspun, ‘Just because I have a fitness app on my phone doesn’t make me an athlete.’ Technology can only let us know if something is not going right, making it right is still our prerogative.