Smarter Wearables Healthier Life

Tooth decay is the most common health condition in the world, according to research cited by the World Health Organization. Yet many people don’t have access to dental care or find going to the dentist too time-consuming. In the U.S., the number one reason people don’t visit the dentist is lack of money. In low income countries, there simply aren’t enough dentists – approximately one dentist for every 152,000 people.

The majority of oral health problems are preventable. A new class of apps and tools leverages your smartphone’s camera and machine learning to help identify cavities, tooth decay and receding gums, bringing dental care closer to people that may not have access to it.

Currently, most major mental health conditions have no cure, but they may be managed. Wearables and smartphones contain a number of sensors that can help examine and monitor symptoms. Location and GPS functions, for example, can be used to measure variables such as how far a person has traveled in a day, how far away from home they are or whether they’ve visited unpredictable locations. In some cases, travel to unpredictable locations may correlate to symptoms of schizophrenia, while a sedentary lifestyle may be associated with depression. Voice data can also be an indicator for mental distress. Heart rate variability, eye movement and electrodermal activity — changes in the skin caused by sweating — can also reveal a person’s mental state.

Doctors and healthcare professionals have been exploring artificial intelligence techniques for cancer detection for at least 15 years. Machine learning and deep learning algorithms have successfully been used to screen for several types of cancer. The next step: skin cancer screening on your smartphone.

Fitness trackers were among the earliest wearable devices. It’s no surprise that they have advanced. Fitness trackers now analyze multiple data points for a more complete picture of heart health, and in some cases can be used for disease detection.

Traditionally, diabetes patients have had to prick their fingers several times each day to measure glucose levels in blood. But diabetes management has been revolutionized by the use of graphene-based patches that measure glucose levels in sweat, and other wearables that are less intrusive. Some researchers have begun looking into the use of graphene tattoos to help. The innovations are meant to address a key challenge in diabetes wearables: making sure devices match the lifestyles of their users.