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"What if you could pick out early warning signs of heart conditions out of somebody's Fitbit data? It turns out that you can. "

Yes, in the future everyone will wear a smartwatch:

https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyo...

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What if you could pick out early warning signs of heart conditions just by looking at somebody and observing that they are overweight? It turns out that you can.

So, you're arguing that measuring other data points doesn't add value? Just look at someone and if they are overweight that's enough of a data point?

It's an empirical question. I would predict that you could do pretty darn well with height, weight, resting heart rate, blood pressure, bloodwork, and asking the patient about their physical activity. Fitness trackers are cool, but I'm just arguing against breathless health claims without justification.

Why wear a smartwatch when we might be able to embed more accurate, useful sensors instead given advances in communication and battery technology?

Probably not in the next few decades. But if you want extrapolate way out into the future, perhaps you don't even need a internal sensors. Give it 2 or 3 hundred years.

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