NEW DELHI:
Half-marathon runner Rajaraman Santhanam monitors his body closely. The Bangalore-based director of finance at chip-maker Nvidia knows how many calories he's ingested as food, the distance he has run, the route he's taking and overall fitness after his run.
It's all there on his Nexus 5 smartphone thanks to apps Map My Fitness and My Fitness Pal. Anna Mittal, a Gurgaon-based marketing consultant, goes to the gym after work every day. Her Nokia Lumia 1520 is a constant companion as she works with light weights and exercises on the treadmill.
Every few minutes, calorie burner and exercise app Adidas miCoach updates Mittal on the impact the routine is having on her body — number of steps taken, calories burnt and so on. In Mumbai, Vandana Jain, managing director of Advanced Eye Hospital & Institute, relies on her Samsung S3. She gets information on the distance run and calories burnt via an audio feed.
"The smartphone helps do continuous monitoring. This is the future," she said. "A user may not be able to interpret the ECG, but if the app tells her whether it's normal or not it will be a good start." Santhanam, Mittal and Jain are among a growing number of users relying on their smartphones and fitness trackers for an array of health-related information from calorie count to blood sugar levels, heart monitoring to checking out sleep patterns.
(A smart band can sync up with a mobile to tell users the number of hours of good, average and bad sleep they've had.) Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Vinod Khosla believes that in the future 80% of what doctors do will be performed by machines (smartphones and datacrunching devices).
And here the likes of the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S5 with a builtin heart monitor and Sony Xperia Z2 via its life-logging app come in handy. Bangalore-based JanaCare, a startup spun off by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is working on diagnostic sensors that can be fitted on a mobile.
These can run checks on bodily fluids with the smartphone displaying data such as sugar levels to lipid profiles. "It's a diagnostic hardware sensor to analyse any fluid—blood, urine, sweat or sliva," said Sidhant Jena, founder and CEO, JanaCare.
"We look at the smartphone as a diagnostic tool that can replace the clinic." An ambitious goal that startups such as JanaCare and global giants like Apple are working toward. In October, Apple is set to launch the next version of iOS, the key feature being a kit to help users monitor health metrics on a daily basis.
Julie Ask, principal analyst at Forrester Research, points to three advantages that such devices have. First, they give longitudinal data. That is, they track parameters over time rather than just when you go to a hospital.
Second, these create awareness among users and third they allow remote monitoring. In the not-so-distant future, smartphones with health apps could be linked to hospital electronic patient records to update data continuously. "Smartphones can be used to monitor health of the elderly on a continuous basis," Jain said.
"In a country like India where there is a shortage of doctors, technology will help solve some of the problems. Here, smart devices will play a key role." They won't replace doctors, but help users get a better idea of their health. "These are self-assessment tools and not for clinical replacement," cautioned Varun Sood, chief information officer, Fortis Healthcare.
They function like a thermometer—tell you if you have fever or not. To interpret what infection caused it, you need to see a doctor. "The smart devices are good for physiological data (heart rate, pulse, temperature ) and not pathological data like blood sugar," said Amitabh Parti, senior consultant, internal medicine, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon.
"The human body is not static, but dynamic, which needs an expert to see if something goes wrong." The smartphones work with built-in sensors that detect movement, such as steps taken. An in-built GPS gives distance travelled with great accuracy. However, to monitor the heart rate or analyze blood, the gadgets rely on code (algorithms) that can give a false result.
"I have noticed 90% accuracy," said Santhanam. "Parameters like calories burnt are less accurate as the device may not have the intelligence to measure amount of sweat released during a workout session." Besides, most off-the-shelf devices are one-size-fits-all type of gear.
"Two people suffering from fever could be for vastly different reasons," Parti said. "You can't rely on gadgets for such sensitive interpretation. Besides, medical tools follow medical guidelines, like a BP (blood pressure) machine has to be calibrated every three months based on JNC-8 (a global standard for blood pressure ) guidelines.
Who will ensure that the smartphone reading is correct ?" Also, a machine doesn't have the clinical experience of a doctor who's seen 15,000 heart attack cases. "Device is not a doctor," said Parti. Device makers say they are not replacing either clinics or doctors.
"The Sony Smart Band covers the fitness and social aspects but is not a heart rate monitor," said Sachin Rai, deputy general manager, sales and marketing , Sony India. "The latter needs certain precision. Also, accuracy of readings depends on accuracy of data entered by users (like height, weight, age etc)."
Ask of Forrester Research added: "The devices may not catch the nuances but they are good for high-low-just not a million shades of grey... Ability to collect data over time is what is new with these devices .
It's all there on his Nexus 5 smartphone thanks to apps Map My Fitness and My Fitness Pal. Anna Mittal, a Gurgaon-based marketing consultant, goes to the gym after work every day. Her Nokia Lumia 1520 is a constant companion as she works with light weights and exercises on the treadmill.
Every few minutes, calorie burner and exercise app Adidas miCoach updates Mittal on the impact the routine is having on her body — number of steps taken, calories burnt and so on. In Mumbai, Vandana Jain, managing director of Advanced Eye Hospital & Institute, relies on her Samsung S3. She gets information on the distance run and calories burnt via an audio feed.
"The smartphone helps do continuous monitoring. This is the future," she said. "A user may not be able to interpret the ECG, but if the app tells her whether it's normal or not it will be a good start." Santhanam, Mittal and Jain are among a growing number of users relying on their smartphones and fitness trackers for an array of health-related information from calorie count to blood sugar levels, heart monitoring to checking out sleep patterns.
(A smart band can sync up with a mobile to tell users the number of hours of good, average and bad sleep they've had.) Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Vinod Khosla believes that in the future 80% of what doctors do will be performed by machines (smartphones and datacrunching devices).
And here the likes of the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S5 with a builtin heart monitor and Sony Xperia Z2 via its life-logging app come in handy. Bangalore-based JanaCare, a startup spun off by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is working on diagnostic sensors that can be fitted on a mobile.
These can run checks on bodily fluids with the smartphone displaying data such as sugar levels to lipid profiles. "It's a diagnostic hardware sensor to analyse any fluid—blood, urine, sweat or sliva," said Sidhant Jena, founder and CEO, JanaCare.
"We look at the smartphone as a diagnostic tool that can replace the clinic." An ambitious goal that startups such as JanaCare and global giants like Apple are working toward. In October, Apple is set to launch the next version of iOS, the key feature being a kit to help users monitor health metrics on a daily basis.
Julie Ask, principal analyst at Forrester Research, points to three advantages that such devices have. First, they give longitudinal data. That is, they track parameters over time rather than just when you go to a hospital.
Second, these create awareness among users and third they allow remote monitoring. In the not-so-distant future, smartphones with health apps could be linked to hospital electronic patient records to update data continuously. "Smartphones can be used to monitor health of the elderly on a continuous basis," Jain said.
"In a country like India where there is a shortage of doctors, technology will help solve some of the problems. Here, smart devices will play a key role." They won't replace doctors, but help users get a better idea of their health. "These are self-assessment tools and not for clinical replacement," cautioned Varun Sood, chief information officer, Fortis Healthcare.
They function like a thermometer—tell you if you have fever or not. To interpret what infection caused it, you need to see a doctor. "The smart devices are good for physiological data (heart rate, pulse, temperature ) and not pathological data like blood sugar," said Amitabh Parti, senior consultant, internal medicine, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon.
"The human body is not static, but dynamic, which needs an expert to see if something goes wrong." The smartphones work with built-in sensors that detect movement, such as steps taken. An in-built GPS gives distance travelled with great accuracy. However, to monitor the heart rate or analyze blood, the gadgets rely on code (algorithms) that can give a false result.
"I have noticed 90% accuracy," said Santhanam. "Parameters like calories burnt are less accurate as the device may not have the intelligence to measure amount of sweat released during a workout session." Besides, most off-the-shelf devices are one-size-fits-all type of gear.
"Two people suffering from fever could be for vastly different reasons," Parti said. "You can't rely on gadgets for such sensitive interpretation. Besides, medical tools follow medical guidelines, like a BP (blood pressure) machine has to be calibrated every three months based on JNC-8 (a global standard for blood pressure ) guidelines.
Who will ensure that the smartphone reading is correct ?" Also, a machine doesn't have the clinical experience of a doctor who's seen 15,000 heart attack cases. "Device is not a doctor," said Parti. Device makers say they are not replacing either clinics or doctors.
"The Sony Smart Band covers the fitness and social aspects but is not a heart rate monitor," said Sachin Rai, deputy general manager, sales and marketing , Sony India. "The latter needs certain precision. Also, accuracy of readings depends on accuracy of data entered by users (like height, weight, age etc)."
Ask of Forrester Research added: "The devices may not catch the nuances but they are good for high-low-just not a million shades of grey... Ability to collect data over time is what is new with these devices .
Posted by www.anymobilesmartphone.co.uk
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