Can Your Watch Save Your Life?

We Might Want to Pay Attention to That Question

In the last few weeks I have seen 3 more stories of people’s lives being saved by their Apple watches. The impressively accurate watch detects heart beat irregularities and pressure changes. It even measures some effects of blood clots.

In each of these cases, as in others, the individual would not have known there was a problem without the watch. In each case, they trusted the watch, sought medical care, and lived to tell the tale,

Kudos for Apple. No doubt others could offer such technology, although I have seen no such reports. There is no reason to doubt that this kind of life saving capability can spread quickly. Let’s hope that will be the case.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in medicine at the patient level. Every generation thinks at some point they were born too early. Twenty years after their time, disease “X” is overcome. Overweight will someday be a rare condition. Cancer will at last be completely defeated. And so on. My guess is that new diseases, viruses, et al will find a way to keep us challenged.

But we are seeing amazing advances in medical technology already serving us. Consider a few:

• The Apple watches are not a small thing. Think about it. A ubiquitous item priced at a few hundred dollars provides lifesaving warnings. It does so as a side benefit (!); not its sole or main purpose at all. It also provides medical data to first responders. It helps maintain healthy habits. I have thought these to be pricy, but I am coming around. Stories of this thing saving lives have become common. I am starting to think it would be willful negligence not to wear one.
• Laparoscopic surgery has become the norm for many ills. Surgery risks and recovery time have plummeted. When you think of what these tiny, tiny incisions accomplish, it is remarkable.
• We face increasingly drug resistant bacteria. This is in large measure from our misuse of antibiotics. One remarkable alternative under development is a virus that exists to eat bacteria. It must be hard to build up resistance to being eaten. If it works, this will be great, with many fewer complications than exist with antibiotics. But in the back of our minds, we can see a Sci-Fi horror story about mutant viruses going berserk. Hopeful AND scary.
• I am seeing articles about using our own immune systems to destroy cancer cells. There have already been some modest successes. Imagine what this would mean. Efficacity could be very high. We would see an end to the terrible side effects and risks of chemotherapy and radiation.
• There is a great deal of research going on as to how best to use nanorobots in our bodies. They could look for trouble and deliver cures. Someday we could find ourselves equipped with the human version of an Engine Check light! Imagine having a message show up on your phone/eye implant that a medical situation is developing and care should be sought, in time or urgently. Death from unseen conditions could become a thing of the past.

When we read about medicine in the 1700’s we are appalled. In 30 years, people may feel the same about what we tried to do in medicine today. Of course, I understand leeches have made something of a comeback. They are very good at keeping tissue around amputations clean and healthy. If leeches can make a comeback, who knows what else may seem discredited now but turn out to be useful later?

Major advances in medicine and in related fields are, to put it mildly, a bit of a crap shoot. Years of effort and millions of dollars may be invested in something that does not work. I had the opportunity to look at these processes while with the Brookings Institution, and again when a friend was working with a medical startup.

Many people and organizations were working in areas of real need and had promising leads. But most would fail, either because the path they chose turned out to be wrong or because they ran out of funding. This is a tough environment for science, for business, for us as potential patients.

We are in a never-ending race. Something is always out there doing its best to kill us. Bright, dedicated people devote their lives to defeating these enemies of humanity. On occasion, a company or a government contributes in a way that makes a difference.

Now if we can just refrain from overheating and polluting our planet long enough to develop the cures for all these other challenges, we will be fine.

Unless an asteroid hits us.

   Bill Clontz

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