Biohacking myself

I now feel a bit upgraded and even more hopeful about the future. I took part in Sweden’s first “RFID Injection party”, organized by the biohacking group BioNyfiken here in Stockholm.
We were 11 members that inserted RFID chips into our hands, expecting many more to follow.
We are all curious and excited about new technology such as biohacking. We want to expand our capabilities.

Personally, I want to experiment and expose myself to this as I see so many potential eHealth possibilities.

I am also certain that us early adopters in this currently rather nerdy field can contribute to finding new, innovative uses for these biohacking technologies, uses that the tech platform developers never thought of themselves.

The chips comes from the company Dangerous Things, together with these comforting words:

“WARNING This kit definitely contains dangerous things. The xNT transponder device has not been tested or certified by any regulatory agency for implantation or use inside the human body. Use of this device is strictly at your own risk.”

But we hired very experienced professionals for the injection job, so everything went smoothly: the Stockholm based company with another cool name: Stay Calm Bodymodification. You can probably guess who they are in the group picture!

Me before the injection: sterilizing and marking the location

A bit relieved after the injection, there was remarkably little pain.

The 11 biohackers with our upgraded hands, members of the Meetup group BioNyfiken http://bionyfiken.se/ Arre you curious? Join us!

eHealth Trendspotting

updated March 29, 2015

The market for eHealth mobile apps and digital medical gadgets is growing very fast now and the big smartphone companies and venture capitalists are starting to take serious interest, as they see enormous business possibilites in the global personal health sector.

This is an extended version of my trendspotting talk during my session “Engaged Epatients” at the Digital Health Days conference in Stockholm. In its second year, this kind of conference is also a sign of the growing interest for digital health services.

Continue reading eHealth Trendspotting

eHealth trends

I gave this short talk today at The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA. It was addressed to their excellent Mentor4Research program and their group of mentors and researchers.

Here are my simple slides and speaker notes:

E-health as a trend: 2 driving forces and 1 catalyst

Driving force 1: Health care

Health screening online for faster and better disease identification.

Today: Feel symptom > Google > get worried > go to primary care > be referred to a specialist. Takes a long time!

With a good screening service you get faster remittance to the right specialist

Benefits: Reduced need for primary care. Earlier diagnosis = better health, less worry.

Research needs: Intelligent online questionnaires. Medical self test kits for home use.

Patient reporting systems

In use today: PER (Patientens Egen Registrering), a system I am involved with for further development.

Rheumatic patients report their health status online prior to doctor visits.

Benefits: Fewer and more effective doctor visits since the information is automatically sent to the doctor’s decisions support system.

Research needs: Continuous monitoring with health logging apps and connected medical sensors.

Driving force 2: Self-care

Patient empowerment tools: patients track and manage their diseases. The Quantified Self movement of users and makers of tracking tools.

Benefits: Better health and patient satisfaction, reduced health care costs.

Research needs: Re-think the health care doctor visit based model. Automatic health & disease monitoring systems, also for mental status like logging quality of life continuously.

The catalyst: the smartphone

Smartphones are at the center for e-health development. This is an FDA-approved ECG monitor addon for iPhone.

Benefits: A powerful and always available platform:

– Information retrieval and reminder tool for the user

– Automatic gathering data with all its sensors

Research needs: Apps that use the smartphone sensors for health tracking and alerts. Connected medical sensors. Medication compliance tools. Personal Health Records

+ Health Hack Day