The world of technology advances at breakneck speed, so much so that many of you consult the news in this area several times a day (I include myself), this has meant that today we can do things that only 10 years ago were unthinkable, and as it progresses more and more and faster, the news that awaits us will be even more surprising than we can imagine.
However, there is an area in which news does not arrive in such a hurry, health, and it is here where technology, in an inevitable approach, can make healthcare begin to evolve also at a faster rate than usual.
And it is that today we already have devices in our pockets or wrists able to tell us a lot about our health, to provide very valuable data to our doctors and to do a daily follow-up of our condition without having to set foot in a hospital.
Evolution of devices
First they were the smartphones, acquiring new functions and ways of interconnecting with other devices they became our command center, little by little they were arriving activity monitorsIn the form of bracelets came devices capable of measuring our steps, the quality of our sleep, our heart rate, the calories burned and sending all this data to our phone without us having to do anything.
After the bracelets came smart watches, It was the same mechanics, but people were not willing to spend their money on a device with which they could not interact, hence, those bracelets were put on a screen and turned into watches, with more sensors and more battery .
Along with watches, smartphones were also acquiring some capacity in this regard, many are already capable of measuring our heart rate, the quality of our sleep and the steps we take or the distance we travel.
Today there are even improved versions of the devices of all life, the scale For example, who said that a scale should only measure our weight? Today they are able to measure weight, the percentage of water in our body, percentage of fat, nasal fat (the worst), the weight of our bones, the weight of our muscles, do you need anything else? Well also, knowing our height, today's scales calculate our BMI, a number that places our physical condition within predefined ranges belonging to acceptable or risk groups.
But not only the scales, now there are blood pressure monitors, glucometers, smart shoes, smart shirts, there are even glasses capable of measuring the amount of water we drink and recording it on our smartphone, it's crazy!
An application to attract them all
And bind them in the dark. Companies have known how to be productive in this regard and the two major developers of systems for smartphones have already made available to the user methods to gather all this data and thus be able to keep all this information at hand for when it is needed.
Both Apple (with Apple Health) like Google (with Google Fit) have put in their mobile operating systems a platform for the collection and delivery of health data, this platform is in charge of collecting data from everywhere where it is available (from our bracelet, our scale, our activity sensors, etc ...) and keeping them organized and represented in graphics, these graphics can be observed by the user and even by our assigned doctor, who may have a more precise idea about our lifestyle, but that's not all, this platform is also capable of providing these data to others who request it (with our permission), in this way specialists can design applications that guide us in our day-to-day life and advise us, whether our sleep hours are insufficient, or if our physical activity is within certain values very good, and much more.
Technology and Health in convergence
The future of these two aspects augurs a convergence, these two areas are destined to be together, and we can get a slight idea of how they can evolve together, but be very clear that what is to come is much more than we can imagine.
In the short term and with great security we can say that soon the health entities will be able to access this data remotely, they will be able to have access (with our permission) to the information that Apple Health or Google Fit collect and offer us personalized alerts according to the values that we must control and even advise visits to our specialist before we think of going on our own, with this information we can do health profiles of each person, we can better control diseases that are genetically transmitted, keep a better history of health complications and even allow our phone or smart watch to notify us when we should take a medicine or connect us with a doctor automatically in case of extreme urgency.
And that is only predictable, but in laboratories they are already being designed nanorobots capable of being ingested and to move around our body to perform reconnaissance tasks and even small repairs that would require surgery. Contraceptive methods are being developed thanks to technology that could be seen as a switch, a switch thanks to which we could decide when to be fertile and when not to.
And before long, our phone or watch will include so many advanced sensors that it will even be capable of analyze our blood just by getting a drop of it.
A healthier future
With all these future prospects, with all these dreams and not so dreams, the future holds a healthy life for humanity controlled at all times, in which few things come without warning and in which controlling diseases and finding common symptoms or cures is a much faster task than it is today, and it is precisely thanks to technology that medicine is advancing and will advance so much in the coming years.
So who knows, maybe the next generations will take a look back and see today's healthcare technology as archaic, it is just a matter of time.