the 20-something’s guide to AI & wellness (aka:: how the AI revolution is going to affect our overall health, wellness, & the technology involved in regulating the two)
if you’re in austin (like me!) or another tech hub, it feels like AI is woven into every conversation. we are inundated with conversations about how AI can maximize our time, improve our technology, analyze outcomes, research, & just overall improve our lives. not to mention the tech bros with startups that utilize offshore talent to deliver SaaS AI systems to the masses…. sound familiar? of course people have varying opinions & ethical concerns, in addition to just sheer confusion (uhm yes, it’s me), but i do get excited to think how so many industries are changing with this new technology & how it can be used to help our longterm health & wellness!
so how will AI fit into the future of our own health & wellness? i wanted to dig into the research & companies who are really at the forefront of working on building technology & innovations that are focused on improving our ability to track, measure, alter, & improve our own health & wellness metrics. what can we look forward to in the future? what problems are we facing now that AI can help with? what are the potential cons of this AI revolution when it comes to our own health & wellness? there is so much to dive into, but i hope you guys enjoy this futuristic look at the intersection of AI & wellness!
first, what even is AI?
AI, or artificial intelligence, is a broad term encompassing machines, devices, & softwares that can mimic human intelligence. right now, most AI models are fed information & have to learn different patterns based on the information they are fed or that is previously stored online. the goal with AI is for it to be able to catch patterns, learn from experience, & be able to provide accurate outputs based on its learning…much like what humans do!
when it comes to AI's role in our overall health & wellness, there is so much possibility! i was able to attend 2 of the steadman philippon research institute’s injury prevention symposiums, where we discussed current research regarding training & performance for high-level athletes, & about 5 years ago they were predicting that the future of injury prevention & performance improvement would focus on combining training metrics, medical history, & physiological variables in order to help create the best program for training & reducing injury. it is so crazy to think that someday we might have enough research & multi-level algorithms to be able to predict injury, adjust training, & overall keep athletes (including everyday athletes like us!) healthier for their sports & lives!
in order to know how AI can help us in the future, let’s take a look at where we are at today when it comes to the current wellness technology…
individuality:: there are limitations in how individualized health/fitness trackers & other devices can be. think about the apple watch. you enter in your height, weight, estimated activity level, etc., & it helps create goals based on your inputs. every day, your goals are the same, regardless of other metrics that track your overall health, such as heart rate variability, resting heart rate, & body temperature. it is a wonderful activity tracker, phone, gps, & safety device, but the personalization of the apple watch to your day-to-day functioning is limited. companies like WHOOP & oura are focused on using metrics for long term health, such as resting heart rate, heart rate variability, basal body temperature, & breathing rate, to help create a more personalized experience, with goals taking into account each day-to-day metric. for example, my oura ring caught when i was getting sick by seeing that my basal body temperature was elevated, it was able to alter my goals to prioritize sleep, rest, & recovery for the days where my health variables were out of my normal range. WHOOP is another company that is rocking the consumer health technology space. their wearable device takes into account certain health metrics, sleep, & daily stresses & strains to help members with their overall performance. consumer health technology has come a long way, but there are still some goals, outcomes, & training we can’t individualize, especially when it comes to knowing what workouts & fueling patterns work best for our bodies & how to best adapt our training by age, sex, & current level of function.
research:: in order for us to be able to see how we can help our future health & wellness, we need to understand past patterns, ideally of people who are similar to us in height, weight, genetics, medical history, & other demographics. there are so many different health concerns that are specific to people with certain ethnic backgrounds, injuries, & physiological variables, so we need to be able to pool all the data we have on specific people in order to process patterns & create systems that would allow for accurate outputs for an individual’s goals. on a small scale, people with an ankle sprain have a higher likelihood for future ankle injuries/sprains, & people with a history of multiple concussions usually have more symptoms & a longer recovery compared to people with 1 concussion. this can also work for larger scale issues & health disparities, like pregnancy & autoimmune diseases. black women are 2.6 times more likely to die from pregnancy compared to white women, & women as a whole make up 80% of people with autoimmune diagnoses compared to men. these are shocking stats, but AI can truly be a tool in helping us reduce these disparities & be able to educate people on their risks & work to reduce the chances of certain conditions or injuries given the health data collected. furthermore, part of our clinical decision making model as doctors of physical therapy involves diving into the research & trying to find patient cases that are similar to each patient we treat in order to help us find the best plan of action, & oftentimes, we have to take a few liberties, as each person is an individual & may not be perfectly represented in the research, especially women & minorities. there is a huge growth opportunity with AI to help us collect information quickly & be able to improve the efficiency of research so that more people are represented & more patterns are able to be formed. in an ideal intersection of AI & wellness, we’d be able to have enough data from enough people from a variety of backgrounds & be able to collect it in an efficient way in order to help with our overall health & wellness goals.
predictions/forecasting:: our inability to individualize predictions & be able to accurately forecast the health status for individuals is another limitation in our current technology, & understandably so. being able to predict certain health concerns, injuries, & diseases while also helping people to understand how certain lifestyle behaviors over time are predictive of their future health conditions is one of the ways i think AI has huge potential to help humanity. as a physical therapist, there are so many patients i see who would be able to have better recovery & outcomes had they been able to read the signs their bodies were giving them long before a certain condition or injury plagued them. my hope is that technology will reach a point where we can take our current health data & our past medical history to help us learn about our risk for future health conditions. to take it a step further, my hope is that by bringing awareness to certain factors & data points now, people will be cued & have better access to education surrounding these conditions & what can be done day-to-day when it comes to exercise, fueling, stress management, sleep, relationships, mental health, etc. to reduce an individual’s risk of these conditions later on.
access:: many people around the world don’t have access to wellness technology or tests associated with tracking & improving their own health & wellness, whether due to financial limitations, lack of knowledge around this technology, or being located in areas that may not have the resources to help. since covid, i do feel like the world has been moving towards improving this limitation in regards to giving more patients access to physical therapy, mental health, & primary care telehealth visits. personally, as a clinician, i’ve been able to educate & guide so many more people virtually who might not have been able to come into the clinic, whether due to commute time, difficulty getting off of work, or because they’re immunocompromised. AI can help us to disperse information, education, & testing with more portable systems, equipment, & devices that aren’t as expensive so more people around the world can have access to certain healthcare guidance, education, & technology.
companies to watch::
Oura:: i’ve had my oura ring for almost 3 years, & it has been one of the best gifts i’ve been given! the oura ring is a wellness wearable that tracks heart rate, breathing rate, heart rate variability, sleep, basal body temperature, active calories, inactive time, daytime stress, heart health, activity, & body resilience. compared to other wearables i’ve used, i love how oura adapts my goals based on the metrics it is gathering from the device. since wearing oura, they have updated their technology to include cycle tracking, a resilience score, & most recently, they’ve added cardiovascular age data to help give insight into your heart health! & as a bonus, it links with natural cycles to help women learn even more about their bodies!
WHOOP:: WHOOP is a human performance tool & wearable that tracks sleep, strain within your day (everything from a workout to studying for a hard test!), & recovery to help you optimize your overall health, wellness, & performance. its algorithm uses data from heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen levels, & skin temperature to create a well-rounded score & guidance on how to best perform for your overall health.
Clarius OB AI:: this is a company that is working to improve access to quality ultrasounds for pregnant women. ⅔ of pregnant women do not have access to imaging, likely due to combined factors of a lack of portability, high cost of equipment, & expensive training. Clarius is creating a device that utilizes AI to help capture the growth & maturation of the baby, recording things like fetal age, weight, & growth.
Mika Health:: in conjunction with a few other companies, Mika has created an AI system focused on improving support for women with breast cancer. breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed & most prevalent cancer in women worldwide. currently, the company is only operating this system in german-speaking parts of the world but will eventually expand to other european countries (& then hopefully english speaking countries!). Mika’s app offers “comprehensive resources on nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and financial issues, acting as a digital therapeutic agent for managing depressive moods and exhaustion”.
Thrive AI Health:: an AI health coach that is focused on improving the healthspan & lifespan of its users by focusing on personalized recommendations for behavior change across 5 categories:: sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management, & social connection. they are especially excited to use this technology to reach underserved communities who may not have access to this testing & guidance.
the drawbacks to AI & wellness
the ability to listen to our body (interoception):: this is probably the one that i have noticed the most when it comes to my own use of wellness technology. oftentimes i rely on what my devices have told me, rather than trying to listen to my body & assess how i feel before looking at the metrics these devices give us. i’m such a metrics person & find them extremely valuable, but i also don’t want myself or others forgetting how to actually sense their body, mind, & spirit.
security of information:: this one might be obvious, but with new technology & new processes, there is going to be a security concern, & since we are talking about health & wellness, there is certain information that would be a significant privacy concern if it were to get leaked on a larger scale.
the over-reliance on the data rather than seeking expert assistance:: with the advancement of devices, i could see a time where there could be an over-reliance on the device or technology & people thinking they no longer have to check in with an expert. i know firsthand that some of the metrics i’ve seen on varying devices that i’ve utilized have been off. as a matter of fact, one of my research projects in college was analyzing the accuracy of various fitness trackers, & let me tell you, the results were not the best in how consistent activity tracking was between devices. i think a wonderful intersection would be allowing collaboration between wellness technology & an expert provider so we can truly get a well-rounded approach knowing our day-to-day metrics. as a healthcare provider myself, i know there is only so much information i can obtain from someone in an hour a week, & i am one of the more blessed providers when it comes to actually spending that amount of time with my patients! i know many other healthcare providers who barely get 5 minutes, so i could see a future where we are able to integrate clinical knowledge with the day-to-day metrics for an individual to truly help them feel the best in their body! chef’s kiss!
companies drawing conclusions on certain data that hasn’t been fully researched or without influence of other physiological variables:: many devices draw conclusions on recovery, sleep, & activity based on metrics like HRV that they are gathering from the device. however, women especially have variations in their HRV throughout their cycles, especially in the later part of our cycles in the luteal phase, so our recovery score & data may not accurately reflect our actual recovery. you might notice this with your device saying “low recovery” & your actual body feeling relatively okay when it comes to recovery. this is due to hormonal changes that affect our physiology that devices are not yet fine-tuned enough to track. & this is just one example of how a device can give us false conclusions based on these metrics. this ties back to our continued need to be able to listen & be in tune with our body, regardless what a device is telling us. (a note:: i am so impressed with the oura system, as it often tells me that my HRV scores might be lower due to the phase of the cycle that i’m in! Definitely evidence of a company doing their due diligence when it comes to utilizing experts on human physiology…see below)
companies not doing due diligence as accurate AI becomes more attainable:: as “accurate” AI becomes more attainable throughout research iterations, programming, & AI training, i fear that companies will start to create technology & devices promising certain metrics, tracking, & results without actually having a medical board or expert board to analyze the truth of these metrics & what they’re actually testing.
final thoughts::
whatever your thoughts or experiences are on AI & its current use, there are plenty of ways it can be used for our own health & wellness in such a positive way! i’m excited to see what is to come, especially in regards to dispersion of information & being able to have larger, more individualized samples, & therefore approaches, for a person’s health & wellness. what are your thoughts? i’d love to hear your take & if you’d like to share any companies that you think are at the forefront of the ai revolution when it comes to health & wellness! this was such a fun blog post to write, & i hope you guys learned a little something like i did!
love y’all always! in health & happiness,
kelsy
resources::
Adekunle, T. Black women in the US experience more pregnancy complications. Here’s why that needs to change. World economic forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/why-black-women-are-apprehensive-about-pregnancy-and-why-this-matters/#:~:text=Recent%20research%20shows%20that%20Black,to%20them%20and%20their%20infants. Jan 22, 2024. Accessed July 27, 2024.
Whiting, K. 6 conditions that highlight the women’s health gap. World economic forum.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/06/womens-health-gap-healthcare/. Jun 19, 2024. Accessed July 27, 2024.
Sims, S. How your female sex hormones affect HRV. Dr. Stacy Sims. https://www.drstacysims.com/blog/how-your-female-sex-hormones-affect-hrv. April 21, 2022. Accessed July 28, 2024.
