What Healthy Looks Like: Personalized Tracking as a Way to Measure Health

The observation of numerous individual differences in the biology of humans necessitates an understanding of one’s own personal biological makeup because deviations from these healthy “baselines” can potentially serve as early detection markers of preclinical disease and allow for implementation of targeted preventive strategies. Fortunately, recent innovations in wearable monitoring devices and big data analyses allow for long-term data collection and analysis to occur. A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine tracked the health of more than 100 people at risk for diabetes for up to eight years. Participants underwent extensive testing each quarter, including clinical laboratory testing, exercise and physiological testing, microbial and molecular assessments, genetic sequencing, cardiovascular imaging and wearable sensor monitoring using smart watches or glucose monitors.  The researchers discovered over 67 major clinically-actionable health issues – ranging from metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer, blood disorders and infectious diseases largely because the scientists observed changes from baseline measures.   The researchers reported they were able to catch a lot of things before patients were symptomatic and this detection allowed for patients to either be followed more carefully or to receive a medical intervention. These results lend support to the idea of shifting the practice of medicine from treating people when they are ill to a focus on keeping people healthy by predicting disease risk and catching disease before it is symptomatic