You know what? We are going to have data collected on us through these apps and programs that will change our health, individually and collectively. This may help predict patterns of illnesses and warn of an impending epidemic. On an individual basis, algorithms might emerge that provide a previously unseen clue to a future illness.
Let’s take something simple like body temperature. When it’s high, we know that means inflammation or an infection. When it’s too low, that means hypothermia and exposure. But the body temperature varies throughout the day. And no one has gone through the trouble of monitoring it every minute, 24/7, on large groups of otherwise healthy individuals. What if it turns out that someone who is about to get the flu has a specific pattern of low and high body temps – all within the normal range, but still a pattern unlike the one someone without an impending flu. If this proves true, you could pre-medicate that patient with an antiviral days before the symptoms actually emerged.