• About
  • Is It Safe?
  • Live Streaming
  • News
  • Radio
  • Video

@justOncology

~ Musings on health, illness & evidence based medicine

@justOncology

Tag Archives: vitality analyzer

Biometric Monitoring Systems: A Role for Monitoring & Managing Cancer?

26 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by @JustOncology in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bimetric scoring systems, ces 2013, digital health, health, michaeal singer, Quantified Self, vitality analyzer, wellness

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH

There is considerable (and growing) attention focused on the emerging role of ‘quantified self’ tools to improve our overall health status, enhance access, improve outcomes while also lowering the total cost of health care. At the recently concluded CES 2013 Conference and Exposition a Forbes article posed the following question:

CES 2013: The Year of The Quantified Self?

If you’ve not heard of the ‘Quantified Self‘ movement you will. Their website is chock full of information and health apps for the curious and motivated. The recent blog post: Future Normal: Quantified Self Tools at the Apple Store hints at the new normal now in sight. Or as overheard several times on the Silicon Valley circuit for at least the last three years and oft credited to William Gibson:

The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet

So in this entrepreneurial frenzy and resultant sea of digital health apps all chasing the holy grail to define and manifest a healthier America, much attention has rightfully focused on the capture, reporting and sharing of meaningful biometric data to maintain health, improve health literacy, better inform doctor/patient communications and ultimately support improved health outcomes.

Against this background, now ponder the following xPrize-esque(?) question:

Imagine if you could have a conversation with your body on a cellular level. What if you asked your cells, how am I really doing? Am I healthy? Is my treatment working? Is there anything I could be doing better?

And consider the following reply:

‘The Vitality Analyzer, an FDA approved Class II over-the-counter medical device that electrically measures your health, is a simple tool that helps you answer those questions. Based on well established technology, the Vitality Analyzer measures your health collecting information about your body’s cells and then translates it to a numeric score; your Vitality Index a global health indicator.’This Week in Oncology on the BlogTalk Radio Network | @justOncology

Sound interesting, if not a bit of an over the top claim to make? it did to me. So on the Wednesday, January 30th 2013 broadcast of ‘This Week in Oncology‘ we’ll chat with the inventor Michaeal Singer and dive deeper into the peer reviewed science supporting the ‘well established technology’ cited above.

To state the obvious, at least from the point of view of cancer patients wondering what is happening at the cellular level minimally in between those routine or non-routine follow-up visits to the oncologist, if this metric can reliability report on the underlying state of health or to the contrary tumor pathogenesis, this is the kind of ‘biomarker’ information most cancer patients would want to have.

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

The ‘incident’

My life was essentially on autopilot. My oncology practice was very successful; in fact, too successful. All my time and energy was devoted to keeping pace with the increasing demands of the profession. Other pursuits, be they personal or professional, always seemed to take a back seat. My main unfulfilled passion was writing.

On January 7, 2011, everything changed. I had a new bovine aortic valve and three new coronary artery grafts. A life altering event, to say the least. Fortunately my recovery has been uneventful, and I had no evidence of muscle injury. So I’m extremely grateful for the pre-emptive surgery, and since I’m back to work on a part time basis, I now can devote some of my attention to writing.

For the past several years, a colleague, trusted advisor and friend of mine, Gregg Masters, had been prodding me to “just do it”, i.e., just start blogging, podcasting and life streaming my experiences in Medicine. He pointed out the value of my 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology as 'elder wisdom' currency in relative short supply. In truth, there is certainly a lot to write about as the clinical knowledge base has grown enormously, to the point where management of all this information requires computers. Fortunately, technology has developed at a rapid rate also so that we can not only mine all this data to obtain meaningful information, but better disseminate it to each other, health plans (including government) and especially our patients. With the advent of social media including Twitter, Facebook and You Tube, this flow of information becomes a two way street allowing physicians to listen as well as talk. On a personal note, my wife published daily status updates during my surgery and through the post-operative period on a website called Caringbridge. She posted pictures as well as narrative. Colleagues, relatives, friends and patients had a window opened to them as to how I was doing, and they in turn wrote back notes of encouragement that touched me deeply.

When Gregg and I thought about it, his background not only in 'web 2.0' (social media) but perhaps more significantly his considerable experience in the business aspects of medicine brings value into the conversation as well. In today’s environment, physicians are constantly reminded that we not only are responsible for all aspects of caring for patients, but we are running a business as well. Years ago, I remember reading an excellent book called “The E-Myth Physician” by Michael Gerber. One of the chapters was devoted to the subject of “Money”. So Gregg’s knowledge complements my clinical background resulting in the birth of JustOncology.com.

Certainly there is no shortage of topics to discuss. Utilizing a variety of media: blogging (which addresses my passion for writing), audio and visual interviews with as many of the stakeholders in cancer care as possible, we hope to provide a forum for discussion of problems facing us. From these interactions, the desired outcome is to identify solutions that can only come from a collaborative effort.

Recent Posts

  • In Absentia
  • What Is Cancer?
  • Big Data, Government and Cancer Research: A Benefit for Patients?
  • The Advent of Cancer Immunotherapy: Addressing Unmet Needs Part 1
  • Crowds Care for Cancer Challenge: Supporting Survivors the Finalists
  • Tumor Board: Is There Value in Multidisciplinary Case Consideration?
  • ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ by Morgan Spurlock
  • @IBMwatson and the Future of Oncology Care

About

JustOncology.com is a joint publication of Richard Just, MD, aka @chemosabe1 on Twitter and Gregg Masters, MPH, aka @2healthguru on Twitter.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@chemosabe1 on Twitter

Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.

@JustOncology

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blogroll

  • @TumorBoard
  • AACR
  • ACO Watch
  • ASCO
  • NCI
  • Pacific Oncology

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • @justOncology
    • Join 60 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • @justOncology
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: