Will wearables and other gadgets make us healthier?

Is good health really all that digital? I am not so sure. I am a skeptic. I realize this is a risky thing to say these days. It’s hard to bet against Apple. And It was only seconds after Tweeting such doubt that John Nosta, an expert in digital health technology, tweeted back: @drjohnm Health is very digital. @EricTopol #digitalhealth — JOHN NOSTA (@JohnNosta) January 4, 2015 Well, yes, surely digital technology is important in the diagnosis and management of diseases. I couldn’t do ablation without engineering and technology. We use digital devices to monitor the heart’s rhythm, and said devices, such as the AliveCor iPhone ECG, herald improvements over clunky wired devices. Diabetes is monitored digitally. Vital signs are too. Dr. Eric Topol wrote recently about the (molecular) stethoscopes of the future. I don’t mean to say digital technology improvements are not improving medical care. They are. But is the digital revolution correlating with better health? A look around America, call it the “general appearance” part of the exam, would suggest not. The view from my waiting room, my orthopedist’s waiting room, an airport, a mall, anywhere other than fitness enclaves like Boulder Colorado, would lead one to believe the correlation between tech and health is inverse. It seems the more digital, white-screen attached, we become, the fatter and sicker we get. It’s ironic, perhaps metaphorical, when an obese sedentary smoke...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs