“Aetna will subsidize Apple Watch in first U.S. Insurer Deal1”, “Google secures patent for glucose-sensing contact lens2”, “Jawbone acquires Mobile Health Start-up Massive Health in Big Talent Acquisition.3” It is undisputable that the health sector is truly being conquered by the digital age. New companies, applications and products are popping up all over the globe. Nowadays, you can track, record and compare everything, from your step-count, sleep-pattern, heart-rate to your menstrual cycle. Gartner predicts that 68.1 million wearable devices will be shipped this year5 and “Even President Obama is wearing a Fitbit Surge4.”
Health insurance companies such as Aetna, Humana, or the German TKK have made headlines in 2016 by signing major deals with technology giants such as Apple to distribute the Apple Watch to its policy holders. In the current constellation, the respective insurance company subsidises the purchase of an Apple Watch in order to encourage the policy holder to lead a more active and healthy life. The insurance company additionally incentivises the users by setting health and exercise targets that are monitored by the wearable device. When these targets are achieved, policy holders are rewarded through reduced premiums, vouchers or physical rewards. In Aetna’s case, the policy holder can opt in to have the data collected by the Apple Watch used to establish an entirely personalised insurance policy1. That sounds awesome, right? Finally, active and health conscious individuals are rewarded for the daily choices they make and pay less for their health insurance. Why would insurance companies do that? For them prevention is key, the more people take care of themselves and lead a healthy life, the lower the overall cost to the insurance company in the long run.
Medical (research) companies will also be able to draw huge benefits from vast amount of information collected by the wearable devices. “As we have more and more sophisticated wearables that can continuously measure things ranging from your physical activity to your stress levels to your emotional state, we can begin to cross-correlate and understand how each aspect of our life consciously and unconsciously impacts one another.4” By aggregating and analysing the available data researchers are able to identify patterns in a populations diet, exercise regime and environment which contribute to disease, anomalies (such as cancer hotspots or contaminated areas) and other health trends. In the U.S. researchers are already using the data collected from asthma inhalers to specify which areas and which conditions trigger increased asthma attacks and consequent usage. As a result, they will be more able to help asthma sufferers avoid similar situations.4 In time, this will allow the health industry to eradicate certain illnesses and be able to recognise and react to others much faster.
This raises the question – what happens with the data, who owns it and how should it be used?5 People’s opinions diverge greatly when it comes to collecting and sharing data. In particular, when it comes to personal data and it doesn’t become much more personal than your health. The companies providing the wearables and tracking apps have access to many aspects of a person’s life and it is currently still not clear how and to whom they are allowed to sell this data. In the hands of the government, such as the NSA in the past, this takes on Big Brother like qualities, giving the government the ability to survey individuals 24/7. Employers are purchasing wearables as perks for their employees, but what if they also gain access to the information? Do they have a right to have that much insight into their employees lives? Advertisers who purchase the data can now target their audiences even more closely. For example, a woman who tends to have a headache at a certain point in her cycle can now receive targeted ads for pain relief at the same time every month. How can individuals opt out of sharing their data6? The scientific and data driven innovations in the health sector are outpacing the legal frameworks in place.
For now, many questions remain unanswered and many new ones will emerge as the digitization of the industry continues. Regulations and legislation will have to catch up to ensure that individuals are protected and that the data created and collected is not abused. (708 words)
By Tunuka Gray and Annika Brock
Sources:
2 https://diatribe.org/google-secures-patent-glucose-sensing-contact-lens
5 https://www.ft.com/content/b709cf4a-12dd-11e3-a05e-00144feabdc0
6 https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/16/14932764/deepmind-google-uk-nhs-health-data-analysis
https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/08/patient-monitoring-big-data-future-healthcare/
Very interesting article and I am very curious how it will evolve in the future. Besides the positive incentives that insurance companies can give to their customers by using big data & wearables and the ownership discussion, I think it will be very important do address adverse effects for the consumers. For instance the question whether or not they can also use the data to charge higher prices. Eventually insurance companies might be able to identify people who are genetically prone to certain diseases (e.g., diabetes). In such a case the regulators will need to draw a clear line in my opinion, yet I am curious how this discussion around such topics will continue the better the devices are getting.
Check out this very interesting example of a new company in that space: ava is a simple bracelet and predicts fertility of women, effectively making it much easier for them to plan pregnancy: https://www.avawomen.com
Many instances of data collection and usage is promising, but it also based on a big assumption of trust. In places where there are checks and balances to power, we can be more certain that my data may not be abused. However, how do such usages turn out in other regimes? There may need to be an international agreement and enforcing mechanisms to protect misuse of data.
I agree with the perspective of the authors. Although these applications can have a significant impact on users’ health, at the same time there are tremendous data privacy considerations. Also, governemnet intervention is critical to ensure that healthcare companies do not abuse these data by charging very high prices to customers who are at a hisk health zone.