Ask HN: What are ways you feel healthcare can be improved? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are ways you feel healthcare can be improved?

6 pointshsikka8 comments

Hey folks, its early days yet, but I'm working on building a platform and api (www.sapien.io) that would bring together your health records, fitness data, lab report, and any other health related data and place it totally under your control. I think quantifying longitudinal health data would have an enormous value for our society. A good analysis of what I mean is at https://medium.com/@qbio/a-positive-feedback-loop-for-humanity-437762f6725c#.x15ojq5w1. I think making it developer facing would also be really awesome. As smartphone sensors get better and better, it isn't far fetched to imagine tests and apps being made for the phone that can detect common ailments like the cold. But we need a platform to support the developers and algorithms that would do that. Any thoughts or advice for me? I'm very young and really just trying to build something that would help folks. I don't really have any plans for monetization, yet.

Gamification is the only area where you really can't run out of ideas. Find ways to pull some of this sensor data, whether from the smartphone, the Nike+, the fitbit, etc, and create games out of it. That would also seem to be a good easy way for a young developer to get something simple but finished (rather than complex but unfinished).

It could be just a basic competition among friends -- whoever walks the most steps in a day gets a badge. Or you could do something crazy like Pokemon Go except where the Pokemons run away from you at a 10 minute mile pace (6 mph) when you spot them, and you have to chase them down. Or do an internet-of-things project where you change your TV channel by doing the corresponding number of push-ups. These ideas are free of charge, you're welcome.

Wow thank you! I really appreciate the pointers!

First of all, health care is definitely a part of society which needs to be reinvented, so kudos for contributing to that. You say you are looking to build a platform with a great value for society. Why not focus on the big issues? Smoking is still the number one cause of death in many countries. In my country, 1 in 10 people has type 2 diabetes, and 1 in 3 adults will develop it at some point.

It might be too difficult for a one man project, but anything that does not tackle these problems feels like premature optimization to me.

Very good insights, thank you! It may seem like too much for a one man project, but perhaps if I do my part people will follow suit? I'll keep you posted on how it turns out!

I am interested to hear about it!

It's an interesting idea but where do these data come from? Fitness data makes sense but health records/lab reports/medical claims are owned by doctors and insurance companies...

You're absolutely right! To integrate the more serious data, I would have to partner with some of the medical and insurance organizations. I'm going to take it one step at a time, and see where that gets me!

Single payer.

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