Institute For The Future

By all indications, 2013 will mark the emergence of a much more sophisticated set of tools for people to track--and diagnose--their own health problems. AliveCor, an iPhone case that can conduct an electrocardiogram, and, naturally, transmit the test to the cloud, just gained clearance from the FDA and is set to begin shipping in January. The project is aimed, at least initially, at patients with arrhythmias and other minor heart problems that need watching, to monitor their cardiac health. Meanwhile, Scanadu, has gotten a lot of attention--including from Co.Exist--for its efforts to develop a medical tricorder that can test for 15 different conditions that it plans to release next year.

At first glance, these devices may not seem that significant. As fascinating as I find AliveCor, for example, I don’t anticipate buying one next year. And this may be because devices like AliveCor and Scanadu are driven by a deceptively simple idea. As cheap sensors are being built into phones, cars, and even everyday objects like coffeemakers to help aid in diagnosis, people can--and should--take advantage of them to manage their own health.