Health OS Revolution: Powering Preventative Care with Data
From Bryan Johnson's Blueprint to Whole-Body Scans and Preventative Blood Tests – Unraveling the Data-Driven Health Revolution
Hi, I’m Maud. My passion for understanding and exploring the evolving landscape of health and wellness has led me to create this newsletter. Each week, I'll dive deep into the latest trends in longevity and functional health, uncovering exciting developments in both science and business, and sharing practical tips. Subscribe and never miss an issue!
Last week, I had the privilege of going on stage at the AI for Life conference in Switzerland to discuss a growing trend that is reshaping the healthcare landscape: preventative health powered by an explosion of health data. The shift from traditional, reactive healthcare to proactive, data-driven wellness is not just a concept; it is becoming a tangible reality, as demonstrated by visionaries like Bryan Johnson.
In this article, I'll share insights from my conference presentation (slides available here) and explore this emerging healthcare era. We'll delve into the crucial role of continuous data monitoring in enabling personalized, proactive health management, marking a significant shift in how we approach health and wellness.
The Most Measured Man in History: A Tale
The internet is not short of opinions about Bryan Johnson, the tech entrepreneur waging a one-man war against aging who founded the Longevity protocole Blueprint. But beyond the many debates about the personality, appearance and the nature of Johnson’s personal quest, lies a tale of what the future of health is going to look like: data-driven.
Bryan Johnson is most likely the most measured man in history: he and his team of more than 30 doctors, clinicians, and researchers analyze how the 78 organs that make up his body have responded to the latest tweaks to his diet, sleep, and movement - to optimize his health towards his ultimate goal to reversing aging and live forever. He reportedly spends $2M/year on his health - more than any of the world’s top athletes like Lebron James.
Algorithms understand and can guide me better than I can guide myself. The real game-changer is data. Without it, algorithms couldn’t function effectively. While the algorithms have always been there, they lacked the essential fuel of data. With Blueprint, I’ve demonstrated that once you provide that data, you create a self-sustaining system. I’m willing to yield control to an algorithm that proves to be superior. - Bryan Johnson
Johnson’s constant, continuous access to his body’s data with regular feedback loops on interventions and optimizations he is performing is giving us a glimpse of what a proactive health future is made of: data-driven, personalized, continuous - leveraged to optimize one’s health daily, but also to screen for disease earlier. This is the dawn of preventative health.
Data in Preventative Health: A Paradigm Shift
Currently, our healthcare system follows a reactive approach to illness. We wait until symptoms arise and people become sick before treating them, rather than proactively addressing their overall health and well-being. This model is commonly referred to as the "sick-care" or "reactive care" model. As a result, the health data we collect is primarily focused on diagnosing specific symptoms and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment at a given point in time.
However, healthcare systems are now shifting towards a new care model known as "preventative care" or "proactive care" (partly due to rising healthcare costs). In this model, we no longer wait for sickness to occur but instead monitor for risks and intervene before diseases develop.
This shift, acknowledged by all healthcare stakeholders (though its current return on investment and effectiveness are debated), will have significant implications for our healthcare systems. It will also require a fundamental change in the way we collect and utilize health data, especially for patients who seem to be in good health.
In a preventative health system, our goals are to understand an individual's risk factors, optimize their health, and prevent disease by early screening. This represents a paradigm shift in the type of data we need and how we collect it. In a preventative care model, an individual's health data needs to be holistic, encompassing a wider range of biomarkers, and collected continuously over time.
Innovations Fueling the Growth of Preventative Health Data
We can already see this paradigm at play with a series of preventative technologies and innovations that are allowing for this holistic, continuous data capture in the US, to answer consumer demand:
ADVANCED PREVENTATIVE BLOOD TESTS examine 40 to over 100 biomarkers, ranging from common lipid profiles to less commonly screened inflammation markers, hormones, liver function, and nutrients. These tests aim to track these biomarkers over time, to identify disease risk and provide personalized recommendations on nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation to optimize health. The category leaders, Inside Tracker and Function health, have garnered 70K+ customers - across 100+ biomarkers, this health data is unprecedented.
Who’s doing this? Function, Inside Tracker, Lifeforce, Instalab and more.
Learn more about preventative blood-based check-ups in my dedicated newsletter here
WHOLE-BODY MRI SCANS provide comprehensive visualizations of our anatomy, allowing us to screen major organs, bones, and tissues. They are incredibly powerful in helping us understand what's happening inside our bodies and detecting major diseases at an early stage. These scans typically last between 30 to 45 minutes and can screen for a wide range of conditions, including various cancers and aneurysms and are recommended either annually or every three years, depending on the patient's individual risk profile.
The amount of data collected from these scans is truly remarkable. According to Prenuvo, a leading provider in this field, a one-hour scan produces over 180 million data points using 19 different tissue weights and generates images that are 10 times higher in resolution compared to many other whole-body MRIs. The datasets obtained from these scans provide an unparalleled level of detail and insight.
Learn more about full-body MRI scans in my dedicated newsletter here.
HEALTH PODS. These are a new generation of whole-body-scanning technologies that are designed to be quicker, less taxing, and cheaper compared to traditional MRI or CT scan machines. The medical usefulness and benefits for the end patient are questionable, as most claim to scan for basic biometrics such as waist circumference and skin cancer. However, these scans gather unprecedented data. For example, Neko health's pod claims to have more than 70 sensors collecting 50 million data points and 15 GB of health data in just minutes. This data can be used to more accurately monitor health over time.
Who’s doing this? Neko Health, Forward.
CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitors) have traditionally been prescribed to diabetic patients to manage their glucose levels and insulin intake. However, these devices are now also being made available to seemingly healthy patients. These patients use CGMs to screen for metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, which are precursors of major diseases like cancer or Alzheimer's, or to help optimize glucose levels to improve overall health and manage weight. CGMs are now considered a new category of 'wearables' that is gaining popularity due to the valuable insights they provide. One popular CGM is Zoe, founded by Tim Spector, which boasts over 5 million users.
WEARABLES. Lastly, there are powerful devices that enable us to capture and leverage health data for preventative health purposes. In 2022, there were over 1.1 billion connected wearable devices, an increase from just over 900 million in 2021. These devices include fitness trackers, sleep trackers, and connected watches. They monitor various health metrics to optimize health and detect diseases early. For example, the Apple Watch 10 monitors heart rate, physical activities, sleep, experienced pain, and can detect rising blood pressure, blood sugar, and signs of sleep apnea.
The End Game? The Health OS
Algorithms understand and can guide me better than I can guide myself. The real game-changer is data. Without it, algorithms couldn’t function effectively. While the algorithms have always been there, they lacked the essential fuel of data. With Blueprint, I’ve demonstrated that once you provide that data, you create a self-sustaining system. I’m willing to yield control to an algorithm that proves to be superior.” - Bryan Johnson (source)
So, going back to Bryan Johnson. In the previous paragraph, we learned about the role of new technologies and innovations, such as wearables, whole-body scans, and comprehensive blood tests, in driving the new "preventative-care" model and making it a reality.
While we may not have access to a team of 30 doctors like Johnson, the foundational principles he used to optimize his health can still be applicable to us in the near future. Advancements in technology will provide us with more continuous data about our bodies. This constant stream of data will act as a "health operating system," providing continuous feedback on our well-being, how our bodies respond to interventions (whether wellness or treatments), and when potential illness arises or when we are at risk.
In conclusion, the journey towards a Health Operating System (Health OS) represents more than just a technological advancement; it signifies a transformative shift in our approach to well-being. This shift towards a proactive, personalized health model is not just a possibility—it is rapidly becoming our reality. By harnessing the power of continuous and comprehensive health data, we are not only focused on treating diseases, but also moving towards predicting, preventing, and optimizing our health in ways that were previously unimaginable.
Super article ! Merci 🙏