Clippings

Posts for Tag: Technology

Big Data I Can Support

I take a pretty small view of my health data, and Nick Wingfield even uses the term small data to when he writes at the Bits Blog at the New York Times of the information collected by the Fitbit I use and other devices. It seems strange to think enthusiastically about big data when the revelations about the NSA and PRISM are headline fare, but Wingfield convincingly show how data collected from many individual users could be put to beneficial predictive use

An individual’s biometric statistics — call them small data — could get a lot more intriguing and useful for everyone if they were pooled into giant vats of data from thousands or even millions of people. Researchers are starting to use body sensors, including the ubiquitous smartphone, to glean a deeper understanding of how behavior, environment and other factors are related to disease.

Coincidentally, Ginger.io, one of the apps that appears in Ryan Panchadsaram's video features here, too.

 

Improved Medical Records


Here's a complementary, and I think much more approachable, take on that last post. Ryan Panchadsaram's bio is certainly impressive; I think ginger.io has crossed my radar screen before. Now to look at the winners of the Health Design Challenge, find out a little more about Blue Button Plus, and wonder why I'm not hearing about these products from my doctors or being urged to use them. I'm ready for more of that dialog Panchadsaram talks about.