IT Technologies and Medicine: How Gadgets Help Modern People to Monitor Their Health
Many skeptics argue that with the development of technology, people’s habits are changing, which does not always positively affect the quality of their life. However, there is also a positive side to this. One of the areas where gadget penetration has the most significant impact is healthcare. The number of devices that allow users to monitor their health and even remotely receive qualified medical care is constantly growing.
As practice shows, such smart gadgets for health monitoring, as well as for sports activities, have become in great demand. As a result, athletes, like ordinary people, have great opportunities to stabilize their health and improve their physical fitness.
Probably the most popular and affordable gadgets for those who want to track overall physical health are fitness trackers and smartwatches. The former are often presented with a waterproof case and allow you to measure your heart rate during sports and track your activity index. They are equipped with an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and have many modes for sports, and allow you to monitor the state of the body during sleep. Smartwatches, in addition to measuring human biorhythms, can plan a route for jogging, play music and serve as a means of communication and payment.
Those who look after their health know that correct posture is very important for the health of the whole organism. In order to get rid of the frequent back pain associated with long sitting at the computer and the mobile phone, Upright GO 2 was invented, a correcting device that sends vibrating light signals when a person needs to straighten their back. Users can track the dynamics of changes and customize the gadget to suit their needs.
Many people suffer from poor quality of sleep due to snoring and can interfere with sleep for others. But there is a way out – Night Shift is a device that is worn around the neck and monitors your sleeping activities. When the user starts snoring, it starts to vibrate. The gadget also saves information about the quality of sleep in the mobile application and allows the user to analyze the dynamics of their sleep.
The Canadian neuro-hoop MUSE offers a very effective way to manage your efficiency while awake. A smooth plastic band with touch sensors that is worn on the head offers a whole range of services for its owner: control from a smartphone via Bluetooth, determining the degree of brain activity, hinting when it is best to work and when to rest, teaching a person to meditate, etc.
There are devices on the market that help to quickly measure the necessary parameters in the case of more serious diseases. For example, with the iHealth Smart Wireless Glucose-Monitoring System, you can self-measure your blood sugar level and use an insulin reminder. In addition to the convenience and compactness of the device, it is very functional and brings in all measurement data, and can synchronize indicators with other medical devices.
Could you imagine that the functions of an ordinary stethoscope can also be replaced by an absolutely wireless device that can measure heartbeat and breathing without the participation of a doctor? The Stethee stethoscope is designed for home use, and you just need to place it on your chest and press a button. And then everything is as usual – the measurement results will be entered into the application on the smartphone, an analysis of the heartbeat and respiration will be created for you, and if the indicators are not normal, you will be notified of the recommendation to visit a doctor. You can also easily measure your blood pressure using a Withings blood pressure monitor, which will save all important information in your smartphone and send the data to your doctor if necessary.
In modern realities, smart gadgets are simply indispensable when a person has chronic diseases. Among the devices that monitor the patient’s condition in case of dangerous chronic diseases, we can mention the Embrace smart bracelet, which informs the caregiver that a person has an epileptic seizure along with their location. The AirSonea asthma control device allows you to prevent an attack based on information obtained by simply putting the gadget to your neck.
And we almost forgot to mention the modern form of the thermometer – did you really think that the mercury thermometer will continue to exist due to its insecurity, especially for small children? It was replaced by a non-contact thermometer that can measure the temperature at a distance of 3 centimeters from the forehead in a few seconds. Popular developments for this purpose are Xiaomi Mi Home iHealth Thermometer and Kinsa. Of course, a smart thermometer can connect to a smartphone and transmit information about body temperature to a cloud server, give a doctor access to this data, and so on.
In view of the lightning-fast development of technology, we can say that even more, medical devices will soon become available to mankind that not only help to stay in good physical shape but also save lives.
