0:00:04 > 0:00:07Do you know how many steps you took today?
0:00:08 > 0:00:14How many calories you burned? How many people you met?
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Or how many hours you slept?
0:00:19 > 0:00:22If you knew these things, it might make you healthier,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25or even save your life.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28And finding them out is no longer very difficult.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36These days, there's almost nothing we can't measure about our lives,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39and we can do it with stuff that almost all of us own.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Whether it's apps on our phones or the latest gadgets...
0:00:45 > 0:00:48You wear it as a headband, so like this when you're asleep.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51..the promise is that our health will be transformed.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55We're almost at Day Zero of a whole new world of medicine.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59There are now doctors giving out apps
0:00:59 > 0:01:02the way they used to prescribe pills or surgery.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06That feels very Star Trek to me.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Three volunteers are going to join me
0:01:09 > 0:01:11to put this medical revolution to the test.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15I've really got to up my game.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20These three weeks have been quite a revelation for me.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22That's absolutely gobsmacking.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27I'm going to find out whether simply monitoring ourselves can change us.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31Can this self-monitoring revolution be the key to longer,
0:01:31 > 0:01:32healthier lives?
0:01:48 > 0:01:50I'm Kevin Fong.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53I'm getting ready for a day on the medical frontline.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59I'm going to see how fundamental the ability to monitor ourselves is
0:01:59 > 0:02:00to saving lives.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05So I'm here in the crew room of London's Air Ambulance.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08These guys are ready to fly off to the scene of an emergency
0:02:08 > 0:02:10at a moment's notice,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and all they're waiting for is for that klaxon to go.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18London's air ambulance exists to get medical staff
0:02:18 > 0:02:21to the scene of an emergency as fast as possible.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26With a senior trauma doctor on board,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29they're trained to deal with almost any situation.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44The team are expected to be airborne
0:02:44 > 0:02:47within four minutes of the klaxon sounding.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57There's no room for a film crew aboard,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00so I'm going to be on my own with this.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05On board are all the tools the team needs to save lives.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08They've even performed heart surgery at the roadside.
0:03:08 > 0:03:14But in many ways, the most important thing of all on this helicopter
0:03:14 > 0:03:16is the monitoring equipment.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20If you don't know what's going on inside your patient's body,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23you've got no hope of fixing them.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30We've been called out to treat someone
0:03:30 > 0:03:32who's suffered a severe head injury.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37I think I'll just put a few stitches in that first.
0:03:37 > 0:03:38As soon as possible,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42the patient is hooked up to the team's monitoring equipment.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44This is our monitor pack,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47and this carries all the vital bits of kits, essentially,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49that we use to monitor heart rate,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53blood pressure, their oxygen level and the gases that they breathe out.
0:03:53 > 0:03:54Essentially, this is a surrogate
0:03:54 > 0:03:57for everything in the emergency department.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00We can have as much surgical kit as we want,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02but it really is essentially useless
0:04:02 > 0:04:05if we can't tell what's happening with the patient.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09So the team are dealing with quite a serious head injury there.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13In addition to delivering a doctor and a paramedic very rapidly,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16they're also able to bring with them some quite advanced monitoring,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19the sort of thing you could get in an intensive care unit, really,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21small enough and portable enough
0:04:21 > 0:04:25that they're able to describe that injury in great detail
0:04:25 > 0:04:28before they ever get anywhere near the hospital.
0:04:28 > 0:04:29Quite simply,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33this small box can make the difference between life and death.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40The patient's been stabilised.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44The team will go with him by ambulance to the nearest hospital.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57The crisis is over, and the outlook is positive.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04You know, this is much more than just a helicopter,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07it's essentially a mobile accident and emergency unit.
0:05:07 > 0:05:08And it's possible
0:05:08 > 0:05:11only because you can take that incredible suite of monitoring
0:05:11 > 0:05:13that you would normally find in a hospital,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17shrink it down and stick it in the back of a vehicle like that.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21But what if everybody could monitor themselves to the same degree?
0:05:21 > 0:05:24What if we all had that capability?
0:05:24 > 0:05:27How would that improve our health?
0:05:33 > 0:05:34I'm going to start
0:05:34 > 0:05:38by checking out some of the latest medical technology.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43But I'm not talking about MRI scanners or surgical robots.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47I'm not heading to a hospital, or a doctor's surgery.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49I've come to a sports shop.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56For a few years, people who are far more committed to exercise than me
0:05:56 > 0:06:00have been using gadgets like these to help them keep fit.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04You know, these are fundamentally impressive devices.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Take, for example, the GPS trackers,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09which grab information from satellites
0:06:09 > 0:06:11and define your position with unparalleled accuracy.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13And then there's the heart rate monitors
0:06:13 > 0:06:16which can measure the faint spread of electricity across your heart,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19through the full thickness of your chest.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20In a few years,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24the number of us with wireless health and fitness devices
0:06:24 > 0:06:27is expected to rise to almost 200 million.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31When these products started to become available a few years ago,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35it didn't occur to me that they would become so advanced
0:06:35 > 0:06:38or deliver such a rich stream of information.
0:06:38 > 0:06:39And I didn't anticipate
0:06:39 > 0:06:43that self-monitoring would find its way into medicine.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47But it's beginning to. And that could make a huge difference,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50so much so that I've started to think
0:06:50 > 0:06:54that we might be on the brink of a revolution in healthcare.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59This is a revolution that takes monitoring
0:06:59 > 0:07:03out of doctors' hands, out of hospitals, and it gives it to us.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10And by doing that, it places us at the heart of our own healthcare,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and makes doctors of all of us.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20There are few people that know this new world of medicine
0:07:20 > 0:07:22better than Blaine Price.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26He's pretty obsessed when it comes to the latest gadgets.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28You're pretty into self-monitoring.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Yes, I get every app going.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32I buy all the devices I can and try them out.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35And it's great, because I get to play with all the toys
0:07:35 > 0:07:39and learn lots of things about myself at the same time.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42'Blaine's gathered together some of his favourite toys
0:07:42 > 0:07:44'for me to have a look at.'
0:07:44 > 0:07:45What have you got for me here?
0:07:45 > 0:07:48First of all, we've got these, kind of a glorified pedometer
0:07:48 > 0:07:52to keep track of how many steps you take, but it's a lot more than that.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55They'll monitor exactly when you took your steps,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58how active they were and intense they were, what time of day it was.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Sleep is one that people are often interested in.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03So, er, this one, you wear it as a headband,
0:08:03 > 0:08:04so like this when you're asleep,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and it measures a bit about your brain activity.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09It can tell you what phase of sleep you're in,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11deep sleep, light sleep, REM and so on.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14And if heart information is interesting to you,
0:08:14 > 0:08:15we've got a pulse oximeter here.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18Oh, yeah, the sort of stuff I use in the hospital anyway.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Sure. And before, you only could get it in a hospital.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22This is now very inexpensive
0:08:22 > 0:08:28and what it's doing is measuring cardiac rhythm and blood sats.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Looks like I'm fairly healthy at 98 or so.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33From the comfort of our own homes,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37we can now measure many of our vital signs.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40We can also measure a few things you might never have thought of.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46There are consumer devices to check your posture...
0:08:51 > 0:08:52your blood alcohol levels...
0:08:56 > 0:08:58- Do a quick jump. - How high you jump...
0:09:03 > 0:09:07And even how quickly you're eating.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13And much of this, we can do without even buying any new gadgets.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16There are now tens of thousands of apps
0:09:16 > 0:09:21available on our phones to track anything and everything about us.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25In fact, there are hundreds of apps coming out probably every week
0:09:25 > 0:09:28which are health-related, able to measure things, log things.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Some of the latest apps use things designed for one obvious purpose,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35like a phone's camera, to do something utterly unexpected.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38We even have apps that can measure your heart rate
0:09:38 > 0:09:40- just by looking at you. - That's amazing.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Give it a try. You have to keep fairly still.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46OK, so I'm going to have to shut up and stay still.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50And it will measure your heart rate by looking at the colour changes
0:09:50 > 0:09:54in your face, and it might even get your breathing rate in there.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58So there's the heart rate there coming in, about 79 or 80.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03And breathing rate about 17. That's really quite incredible
0:10:03 > 0:10:06because it must be, the heart rate stuff there
0:10:06 > 0:10:09must be on just seeing the small differences
0:10:09 > 0:10:11in the change and colour of my face?
0:10:11 > 0:10:14So as the capillaries sort of swell up and fall away with every beat?
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Yes, it's the resolution of the camera that does it.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19The technology here has such a high resolution in smartphones
0:10:19 > 0:10:21and tablets that we're looking at the same range
0:10:21 > 0:10:25you would have had in medical scientific instruments 20 years ago.
0:10:25 > 0:10:32I find that...just gobsmacking, really.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Blaine has set up an experiment to help me find out
0:10:38 > 0:10:42whether this technology can really make us healthier.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44He's roped me into taking part as well.
0:10:44 > 0:10:50- I'm Kevin, hi.- I'm Celia.- Celia, hi.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52'Celia, Cathy, and Pam work together.'
0:10:52 > 0:10:55So I understand that you've volunteered to be guinea pigs
0:10:55 > 0:10:58- for this particular experiment. - Yes, we are the guinea pigs.
0:10:58 > 0:10:59What have we let ourselves in for?
0:10:59 > 0:11:02'They're hoping that by monitoring themselves,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06'they can overcome an endless struggle and lose some weight.'
0:11:06 > 0:11:09We're permanently on diets, aren't we?
0:11:09 > 0:11:12We're all very conscious about we eat too much
0:11:12 > 0:11:14and we drink too much, but we love it.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16We all discuss what we ate last night.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19"Oh, no, I had a glass of wine." "Well, Celia had three."
0:11:19 > 0:11:21We've got a set of scales in the office,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23and so every week, we weigh in
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and we keep a chart of what our weight loss is,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28and sometimes weight gain.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Until now, this, standing on a set of scales,
0:11:31 > 0:11:36has been the only form of self-monitoring that most people do.
0:11:36 > 0:11:37I've got to get all my jewellery off.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40Moment of truth. We do this every week, don't we?
0:11:40 > 0:11:45- Does it make any difference? No. - I thought you'd been so good!
0:11:45 > 0:11:49- Don't forget your watch. - I'll take my watch off.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51Get off, quick!
0:11:51 > 0:11:53OK, Cathy.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56- It's stayed the same. - Oh, the same as last time.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Same as the week before.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04It's the same story for so many of us.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06There's too much going on in our lives
0:12:06 > 0:12:10that stops us getting fit and staying healthy.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14I find it really difficult to wake up in the morning
0:12:14 > 0:12:17and think about doing some exercise.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20There's quite a lot of ready meals going on,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22which doesn't help the diet.
0:12:24 > 0:12:25Any excuse.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29If I had all the time in the world, I would exercise a lot more.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32But, you know, there's just work, looking after the house,
0:12:32 > 0:12:33picking the children up from school,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37the usual domestic chores that every mum has.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40So how exactly is Blaine hoping
0:12:40 > 0:12:45that monitoring ourselves can make a difference to our health?
0:12:45 > 0:12:47There's actually only two simple things you have to do.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50One is, you've got to carry around with you a little device here.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52You can stick it in your pocket.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54It'll record how many steps you've taken.
0:12:54 > 0:12:55The other bit of this study is,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58you need to have a smartphone to measure your sleep at night.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01It's going to measure, hopefully, how deeply you're sleeping,
0:13:01 > 0:13:02how well you're sleeping.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04It'll measure the time you go to bed and wake up.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08So what you'll do is get an email every day from me
0:13:08 > 0:13:12with a summary of your performance during the past day,
0:13:12 > 0:13:14how it compares with the past week,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17and also how you compare with the rest of the group.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18The hope is
0:13:18 > 0:13:22that by simply measuring the number of steps we take every day,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25we can set ourselves targets and get motivated to do more.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28And by keeping tabs on our sleep,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31we can find out what helps us sleep better.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34I'm hoping that it's going to give me a better understanding
0:13:34 > 0:13:39of what you actually do have to do to kick-start a healthier life,
0:13:39 > 0:13:44to burn more calories, to perhaps have a better night's sleep.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47I don't have a particularly healthy lifestyle
0:13:47 > 0:13:49because I don't do exercise.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52I'm not aware of my health, shall we say.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54I don't know what my blood pressure is.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58My sleep pattern these days, as I've got older, is not good.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02I'm hoping it's going to give me the enthusiasm to do some exercise
0:14:02 > 0:14:05because quite honestly, I find exercise boring!
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Every day for the next three weeks, each of us is going
0:14:10 > 0:14:14to be bombarded with numbers - how much we've slept,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20how deeply we slept, how many steps we've taken, when we took them.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24The question is whether simply seeing those numbers
0:14:24 > 0:14:26will be enough to make us change.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36But there are people who already use self-monitoring
0:14:36 > 0:14:40to alter their health and fitness in a fundamental way.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48This is Twickenham, the home of rugby,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and I'm here to join the England Rugby 7s team while they train.
0:14:54 > 0:14:55So if you go along it gives you
0:14:55 > 0:14:58pretty much everything you could want.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01'Brett Davison is the team's Head of Physical Performance.'
0:15:01 > 0:15:04..zones which we would have to specify.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06'His players are amongst the most
0:15:06 > 0:15:08'closely monitored people in the world.'
0:15:10 > 0:15:13So they've got on a little GPS unit that sits in a little
0:15:13 > 0:15:16neoprene pocket on their jersey between their shoulder blades.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18There we go.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20And then they've got a heart-rate strap on,
0:15:20 > 0:15:22those two coordinate between each other
0:15:22 > 0:15:25and then the information comes straight back to us.
0:15:25 > 0:15:26'Now, I'm a doctor.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28'I'm used to examining people,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32'and looking for the subtle signs of illness and injury.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35'And as far as I'm concerned this international rugby team
0:15:35 > 0:15:38'looks more than match ready.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41'But Brett sees a lot more than I can without even
0:15:41 > 0:15:44'glancing at the players.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47'He does it simply by looking at a screen full of numbers.'
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Run me through what you've got here.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51OK, there's obviously speed -
0:15:51 > 0:15:54your current, your average and you maximum.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56Heart rate, exactly the same.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Distance, so that's for the whole training session.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Dynamic stress load, number of accelerations, decelerations.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05High speed running is the number of metres they've run,
0:16:05 > 0:16:06maximum speed.
0:16:08 > 0:16:09'All those numbers help Brett
0:16:09 > 0:16:13'detect problems well before any doctor could.'
0:16:15 > 0:16:17You can see the injuries in terms of their speed
0:16:17 > 0:16:19or their lack of, usually.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Um, and certainly their running intensity will be off
0:16:21 > 0:16:25what we know it could be for that particular individual.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28This is Geoff's trace and at the moment
0:16:28 > 0:16:30he's at 18-odd kilometres per hour,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32which is not very fast for these guys.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38So you can certainly start to see where somebody's struggling.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42'And the information Brett gathers turns out to be an incredibly
0:16:42 > 0:16:44'sensitive indicator of injury.'
0:16:46 > 0:16:49It picks up their step balance, their left-right step balance,
0:16:49 > 0:16:50uh, through the, accelerometer.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53So, we can tell how badly somebody's limping,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55or how much they might be favouring a leg.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57And this lad got hit on the knee.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01And the difference between his left and his right is about
0:17:01 > 0:17:02one and a half per cent.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05So, although it's a really subtle change, one and a half per cent
0:17:05 > 0:17:08off his top speed, because he's limping a little bit,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10could be the difference between a try or no try.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14'Since he started monitoring his players this intensely,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17'Brett has found that their soft-tissue injuries have fallen
0:17:17 > 0:17:19'by a stunning 80%.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23'He's stopping injuries before they arise.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28'To Brett, it's become something of a crystal ball,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31'allowing him to see into the players' futures.'
0:17:31 > 0:17:35If they've had a bad night's sleep, their heart rate will show it.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37If they're getting ill and they don't know they're getting ill yet,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40usually their heart rate will show it for us as well.
0:17:40 > 0:17:41So from that point of view,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44sometimes we know things about them that they don't know yet.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46So you can tell that someone's ill
0:17:46 > 0:17:49before they themselves are conscious of the fact that they're ill?
0:17:49 > 0:17:53It hasn't failed us yet, where we've seen data
0:17:53 > 0:17:55and we haven't reacted to it, and literally the player has
0:17:55 > 0:17:58woken up the next day and said, "I'm crook, I can't train."
0:17:58 > 0:18:00And we've been a bit upset that we haven't acted on it.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03But we generally pick up illness
0:18:03 > 0:18:0524 hours before they might start to feel ill.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09You must have found that remarkable when you first realised.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Yeah. For a while we literally were looking at it, going, "That can't be right. That can't be right."
0:18:12 > 0:18:15And we looked at it for a long time, and then started acting on it.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18And then, the results started proving it, you know.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Your body's not going to lie. You might, but your body's not.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26'Imagine if we could all see what lay ahead.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30'Imagine if we all knew what was coming before it arrived.'
0:18:32 > 0:18:34It's remarkable, to see illness and injury
0:18:34 > 0:18:37before the players themselves were conscience of it.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41Because that in medicine is essentially what we strive for.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44To be able to see the storm before it's arrived,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47in the hope that we might navigate safely through it.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49Or perhaps even avoid it altogether.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Here we go, then. See if this works.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Our volunteers are a few days into
0:18:56 > 0:18:59seeing what self-monitoring might do for them.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01We'd better give this gadget a go, then.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03When it comes to counting steps,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07the recommended daily goal in order to keep fit and healthy is 10,000.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12All the way up, all the way down!
0:19:12 > 0:19:15But as the numbers start coming in there's a bit of a surprise.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22I've been looking, just to see how many steps I'm doing,
0:19:22 > 0:19:27and I'm really shocked, cos I really don't even break 5,000 sometimes,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and I'm supposed to be doing at least 10,000.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32It's really hard.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36So today I've been to boot camp and I've really got to up my game.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47The step logging's come as a bit of a surprise really.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50I thought I was quite active and thought I moved round a lot,
0:19:50 > 0:19:55but it's quite a bit lower than I expected it to be,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59and I'm going to have to rely on dancing to boost that count.
0:20:04 > 0:20:10It's been difficult to find enough time to fit in the extra exercise.
0:20:10 > 0:20:11Jess, this way.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13'Mainly through walking,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16'but anyway we'll see how we get on.'
0:20:23 > 0:20:27And, despite the fact that I've come to sunny California,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29I'm not finding it any easier.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37This is harder than I remember it being. I haven't done it in a while.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41I've never really felt the need to pull on a pair of trainers
0:20:41 > 0:20:43and jog up and down a beach.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46But it's different when you're confronted with
0:20:46 > 0:20:50cold, hard numbers telling you exactly how lazy you're being.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53So I've had this now for about a week,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56and I didn't really think it was going to change the way
0:20:56 > 0:21:00I looked at what I did and didn't do, but it really has.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05It does make you more competitive, even if that's only with yourself.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07I know that I've done 3,000 steps today,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10I know that this beach is worth another 500, and I know that
0:21:10 > 0:21:14the difference between exercise and no exercise is a pile of numbers
0:21:14 > 0:21:16that will appear on my computer tonight
0:21:16 > 0:21:18and tell me how hard I've worked.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21So I guess it's probably time I got a bit more
0:21:21 > 0:21:22serious about all of this.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Because the fact is, at the moment, I'm not working nearly hard enough.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38'I'm not here just to run in the sunshine.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42'I've got an appointment to see the doctor.'
0:21:42 > 0:21:44- Hello.- Good morning. - I'm here to see Dr Topol.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49- Go ahead and have a seat, he'll be with you shortly.- Thank you very much.- You're welcome.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54'Californians are famously obsessed with looking and feeling great.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00'So it's a natural home for some of the pioneers of the self-monitoring movement.'
0:22:00 > 0:22:02I've seen a lot of waiting rooms,
0:22:02 > 0:22:06and this one is pretty typical, pretty average, but the doctor
0:22:06 > 0:22:10I'm about to see, his approach to medicine is anything but.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14- Kevin Fong, Dr Topol will see you now.- Thank you.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17'Normally, you expect a visit to the doctor to end with
0:22:17 > 0:22:19'a prescription for pills.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23'But the doctor I'm going to see is much more interested
0:22:23 > 0:22:27'in fixing his patients by getting them to monitor themselves.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31'Dr Topol is a cardiologist.'
0:22:31 > 0:22:34- So let me go ahead and start off, we'll do a cardiogram, OK?- OK.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37I've got my phone here.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40'I've never seen any doctor check for the signs of a heart attack
0:22:40 > 0:22:42'with little more than their phone.'
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Put your fingers on that, and then just make a circuit with your heart.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52So we'll look at this together, OK, and that's your cardiogram.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I find it incredible that you can do that degree of monitoring.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Normally when I'm doing that in a hospital I wheel this sort of
0:22:58 > 0:23:03R2D2-looking thing into the side of the bed and it takes about
0:23:03 > 0:23:0510 minutes to hook up to someone.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09That feels very Star Trek to me. I mean, I...
0:23:09 > 0:23:12You're easily impressed, this is nothing.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15'Whatever's wrong with you, Dr Topol will try and find
0:23:15 > 0:23:19'a gadget to help, so that you can look after yourself at home.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21'He even uses some of them himself.'
0:23:21 > 0:23:23Here's a sensor.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27'He's wearing a sensor like this, with a hair-thin micro-needle that
0:23:27 > 0:23:31'implants under the skin, giving constant blood-glucose readings.'
0:23:32 > 0:23:36I have this on and I can monitor my glucose every minute.
0:23:36 > 0:23:42So right now my glucose is 91, OK, and I can see what it's been doing
0:23:42 > 0:23:47in the last several hours, and every minute it will update.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52For the huge number of people who suffer with diabetes, this is...
0:23:52 > 0:23:56revelatory, because until now they've had to prick their fingers.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58Oh, no, the finger stick could be history.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59When you have this on...
0:23:59 > 0:24:03The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06So now you got your phone, and you're looking at it, you say,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09"Am I going to eat that cookie, am I going to eat that piece of cake?
0:24:09 > 0:24:13"Cos if I eat that my glucose is going to shoot up to 160, 180."
0:24:13 > 0:24:18And you start to realise exactly how your body is responding to food,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20to portions, to exercise.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23It really changes your lifestyle, it did me at least.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26So you're prescribing...apps?
0:24:26 > 0:24:30You name the condition, er, heart rhythm problem,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33we get the condition, the apps to match up with your phone,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37and that's how you monitor yourself.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38Medicine is truly unplugged now,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and it's going to change everything we do in healthcare.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Because now all the information is going directly to the patient,
0:24:46 > 0:24:48not to the doctor.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51And it's more information than we ever had before.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58'After visiting the doctor in the future,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01'rather than leaving with pills, we'll leave with something
0:25:01 > 0:25:06'far more important - information that's impossible to hide from.'
0:25:10 > 0:25:14The whole opportunity to know everything about the medical essence
0:25:14 > 0:25:16of each person is pretty remarkable.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20To me at least, a student of medicine for three decades,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24this is the biggest shake-up in the history of medicine by far.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27'With all this information, Eric hopes we'll be able to spot
0:25:27 > 0:25:31'even the most serious problems before it's too late.'
0:25:32 > 0:25:35To be able to prevent a heart attack with this type of, er,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38information, that to me is the most exciting thing.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41And I do believe that they will be, if not fully preventable,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43awfully darn close.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46We could stamp out something like asthma attacks.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49You can pick up, er, pollen count, air quality
0:25:49 > 0:25:52and how the chest is moving long before the person feels
0:25:52 > 0:25:55a wheeze or is having difficulty breathing.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58What do you think is going to turn up in the next ten years or so
0:25:58 > 0:25:59that people will think,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02"I never would've imagined that medicine would look like this"?
0:26:02 > 0:26:07For the person who really has a significant illness or risk of one,
0:26:07 > 0:26:11putting in a tiniest implant, smaller than a grain of sand, that
0:26:11 > 0:26:16essentially carries no risk, will be commonplace. Er, little microchips.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19We have 'em in our pets to keep track of where they are.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Why don't we have 'em in our people to prevent illness?
0:26:32 > 0:26:36You know, it's startling to hear the way that Eric talks,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38to see the things that he's doing.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40He pretty much prescribes apps
0:26:40 > 0:26:44the way my colleagues would prescribe drugs.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47And that right there is an example of how
0:26:47 > 0:26:50we're leaving behind what he would call the old medicine,
0:26:50 > 0:26:56how we're finally dragging the field of medicine into the digital age.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59And if it works the way that he says it will,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02then it has the potential to change everything,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06it has the potential to be truly, truly transformative.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24These days, we can monitor one of the most fundamental
0:27:24 > 0:27:30but usually unseen aspects of our lives - something that affects
0:27:30 > 0:27:35our physical and mental wellbeing, and even how long we might live.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Our pattern of sleep.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44First night in the United States
0:27:44 > 0:27:47and I'm going to give Blaine's sleep app a go.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51Apparently all I have to do is press that button,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53stick it on the end of my bed
0:27:53 > 0:27:57and it's going to tell me how I slept, so let's give it a go.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04Every twist or turn is monitored
0:28:04 > 0:28:07by a finely calibrated sensor in the phone
0:28:07 > 0:28:10which measures tiny ripples in the mattress as I move.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13It should allow me to see if anything affects my sleep.
0:28:17 > 0:28:18Across the Atlantic,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Celia is carrying out her own sleep experiment.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28Tonight I have had too much to drink, um, more than
0:28:28 > 0:28:30I've had to drink for quite a while...
0:28:32 > 0:28:36..and, yes, I am feeling...worse for wear.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40So I'm going to record my sleep tonight to see what happens.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Every night, each of us will produce a graph detailing our sleep.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51RADIO: John Tamm in the morning on San Diego's number one
0:28:51 > 0:28:52for new country, KSON.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55It's another sunny day here in San Diego.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57HE TURNS RADIO OFF
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Well, let's see what the phone's going to tell me about last night.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05So there's the graph of my sleep, light sleep right up
0:29:05 > 0:29:08there at the top, it says deep sleep at the bottom.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14These mountainous looking peaks here are where I was wriggling around.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18And overall it says that I slept for 8 hours,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21and about 64% of that was deep sleep.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23Who ever thought that phones were going to tell us
0:29:23 > 0:29:25about how well we were sleeping?
0:29:29 > 0:29:33After three weeks of monitoring our sleep, we should all be able to find
0:29:33 > 0:29:38out what affects it - and change our lifestyles to help us get a better night's sleep.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48But self-monitoring might do much more than just change our habits and behaviour.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52We've all worried at some point about what nasty surprises
0:29:52 > 0:29:56might be lurking inside our bodies, what might be going wrong,
0:29:56 > 0:29:57without us even knowing.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02By monitoring ourselves, we can find out,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04and potentially do something about it.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15This is the house of probably the most monitored man in the world.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19He monitors himself - he monitors everything about himself.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22And I really do mean everything.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25But by monitoring himself so much,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28he discovered a potentially fatal condition.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31DOORBELL RINGS
0:30:34 > 0:30:37- Larry, I'm Kevin Fong, nice to meet you. - Good to meet you. Come on in.
0:30:37 > 0:30:43Larry Smarr is one of the most influential computer scientists in the United States.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46He was instrumental in developing networked computers -
0:30:46 > 0:30:49the predecessors of the internet.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Today, he's putting all his talent into monitoring himself.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Larry just give me a shopping list of what you monitor about yourself?
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Well, I monitor my weight.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03I monitor my steps and caloric burn with my Fitbit.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05I monitor my sleep every night.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08Urine, saliva, blood, I monitor stool, actually...
0:31:08 > 0:31:12You even go so far as to monitor your own stools?
0:31:12 > 0:31:18Yes. I mean that's by far the most important part of what I've done.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21There is such a thing as too much information, surely?
0:31:21 > 0:31:24No. There is never too much information.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26It is a challenge to...
0:31:26 > 0:31:28to turn that information into understanding,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30and that's what science is about.
0:31:30 > 0:31:31- Am I missing out?- You are.
0:31:31 > 0:31:37We produce stool every day, everybody on Earth does,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and it has this incredible information about the state
0:31:40 > 0:31:43of your health and we just flush it away.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47It's relatively challenging things to do, to monitor,
0:31:47 > 0:31:52you know, that element of your life - I mean how do you do that?
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Let me just show you.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58The point is you have to freeze it.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02And I do it every two weeks so I'm going a very fine timescale.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07And so it's just sitting here in the freezer.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11So each of these is labelled.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14That one's February 23rd,
0:32:14 > 0:32:19this one is, this one here is January 26th.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21This is just in the freezer in your kitchen,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23it's not even a separate freezer?
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Well, it's getting to the point now that I've got enough of them
0:32:26 > 0:32:28that I'll take them to the medical school.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32You just Fedex them, and it's overnight delivery,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35and then 2 weeks later I get back all this data.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37I sort of had it in my mind that you'd have
0:32:37 > 0:32:40some special freezer in your garage or something.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45Well, my wife probably thinks I should but she's very understanding.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52At his laboratory, Larry has put all his information together.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56So I was wondering how on earth you were represent
0:32:56 > 0:32:59all of the data that you collect about yourself.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03'Over the years, he's gathered billions of different measurements about his body.'
0:33:07 > 0:33:11From his enzymes to his proteins, his minerals
0:33:11 > 0:33:15to his microbes, nothing goes undetected.
0:33:15 > 0:33:20And this display shows just a tiny fraction of them.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25- These are 150 different variables over either 5 or 10 years.- On you?
0:33:25 > 0:33:30Just on me. Here's my cholesterol variables, my magnesium.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Phosphorous, sodium, thallium, stuff I've never heard of.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37You're measuring stuff that I've I don't even know how to pronounce.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41Yup, all of the things that your doctor tells you to measure
0:33:41 > 0:33:42and a lot of others.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47'With this information, Larry has a warning system in place,'
0:33:47 > 0:33:50'in case anything goes wrong inside his body.'
0:33:50 > 0:33:53The colour coding is that if they're in the green they're healthy,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55but if they're in the orange,
0:33:55 > 0:34:00that means you're 1-10 times above the upper limit for healthy.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04I look at this and I say, "Look at all that green I must be pretty healthy."
0:34:07 > 0:34:10But a few years ago, he noticed something was wrong.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16I said, "What's this thing up here that is red"
0:34:16 > 0:34:20"that is spiking up to 30 times the upper limit? And this one down here
0:34:20 > 0:34:25that's purple, that's 125 times the healthy limit."
0:34:25 > 0:34:29Some of the measures of information in Larry's bloodstream
0:34:29 > 0:34:32had shot to worryingly high levels.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Lactoferrin is supposed to be less than 7,
0:34:37 > 0:34:42and this is 899, 125 times the upper limit.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47So far off scale that you don't have to be a doctor to know that
0:34:47 > 0:34:48something's going wrong.
0:34:48 > 0:34:49Terribly wrong.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52So you look up Google
0:34:52 > 0:34:56and within an hour you can find 5 or 6 peer reviewed papers that say
0:34:56 > 0:35:00if you have a value of this variable at these numbers,
0:35:00 > 0:35:05say 750 to 1,000, you have a chronic incurable disease.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12He'd discovered that he had Crohn's disease - a serious disorder of the intestine.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16You must've been terrified by this surely?
0:35:16 > 0:35:18I'm a scientist,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22so the way you fight that feeling is get more knowledge.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25With the knowledge he'd gathered, Larry was able to
0:35:25 > 0:35:29diagnose his disease at the earliest possible opportunity.
0:35:31 > 0:35:32He believes that soon,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35we'll all be able to monitor ourselves like he does.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41In a world in which you can see what you're doing to yourself
0:35:41 > 0:35:45as you go along, the hope is that people will take more personal
0:35:45 > 0:35:49responsibility for themselves, in keeping themselves healthy.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53So it's like we're almost at Day Zero of a whole new
0:35:53 > 0:35:54world of medicine.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56And what will come out the other end,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59is a far healthier society that's focused on wellness,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03rather than trying to fix sickness when it's way too late.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Larry's providing a new self-awareness that would
0:36:15 > 0:36:20lead to a new kind of preventative medicine, one that doesn't depend
0:36:20 > 0:36:25on vaccination, or programmes of public health, but instead on data.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30And in that, I think he really might be onto something.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40We're one week into Blaine's experiment.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46When we started, I think we were all a bit surprised at how hard
0:36:46 > 0:36:50it was to reach the recommended daily level of 10,000 steps.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54So how's everyone doing now?
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Who's that there? That red bar is Celia.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Upping her game.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Getting over 15,000 steps on a couple of days
0:37:02 > 0:37:03which is pretty impressive.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07It does kind of give it all that competitive edge.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11'Our little experiment seems to have got rather serious.'
0:37:11 > 0:37:15- PHONE RINGS - Well, it's ringing.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17- Hello! - ALL: Hello!
0:37:17 > 0:37:19How's it all going?
0:37:19 > 0:37:23Well, we're a bit concerned about how well you did.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26Last Monday, you seemed to put on a good spurt.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29I did do a bit of running that day, I have to say.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32But I see, Celia, you did a couple of days over 15,000 steps.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37I have, yes, and I'm definitely making sure that
0:37:37 > 0:37:39I walk places that I wouldn't normally do
0:37:39 > 0:37:42and it's been going really well.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Celia is winning. She's beating all of us.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Yeah, what are you going to do about that, Cathy?
0:37:48 > 0:37:50I've been going to boot camp,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54but my step count is a bit disappointing, I'm afraid.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57So I'm having to do a run after boot camp,
0:37:57 > 0:37:58but, having said that,
0:37:58 > 0:38:01my steps are still nowhere near as much as yours and Celia,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03I'm very upset.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06- How's it been going with you, Pam? - I've been doing a lot more walking,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08and, er...
0:38:08 > 0:38:12going the long way round to make the tea and the coffee.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14I'm a little bit concerned, because I didn't think
0:38:14 > 0:38:17we'd be taking this quite as seriously as we are.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21'Maybe this monitoring really is changing our behaviour.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23'We'll find out in a couple of weeks
0:38:23 > 0:38:25'just how much difference it can make.'
0:38:25 > 0:38:27- See you later, lovely to see you. - ALL: See you! Bye!
0:38:33 > 0:38:35I'm out running...again.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39It's hard not to when every single day
0:38:39 > 0:38:42you know exactly how many steps you're clocking up.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47But, really, what I'm doing here is one of the more obvious ways
0:38:47 > 0:38:49of monitoring your health.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56When we think about the way that we monitor health,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59we talk about heart rates and blood pressures, or the amount
0:38:59 > 0:39:03of exercise we're doing, or the calories that we've burnt.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07But it turns out you can gain a surprisingly profound
0:39:07 > 0:39:11insight into the state of your health by tracking apparently
0:39:11 > 0:39:14trivial bits of information about your life -
0:39:14 > 0:39:17stuff that until now, we've completely ignored.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21So I'm here to find out how that's done.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28'I've come to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32'I'm here to see how experts can monitor our everyday behaviour and
0:39:32 > 0:39:36'peer into corners of our lives that I never would've thought possible.'
0:39:36 > 0:39:38- So, please have a seat here. - Thank you.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42'Professor Sandy Pentland believes he can tell not just
0:39:42 > 0:39:45'what's going on in our bodies, but in our minds too.'
0:39:46 > 0:39:51'And he can do it with something that most of us already own -
0:39:51 > 0:39:53'a smartphone.'
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Phones know a lot about your social life, who you call, who you
0:39:57 > 0:40:02communicate with, a lot about your daily activities, where you go.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04And so if you put the two together, you can do things like assess
0:40:04 > 0:40:08mental health, and you can actually get a picture of how you're
0:40:08 > 0:40:10doing constantly, 24/7.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17Sandy was asked to develop an app to help spot signs of depression
0:40:17 > 0:40:21and post-traumatic stress in soldiers returning from war.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27I am curious because I've had your app on my phone for a few
0:40:27 > 0:40:31days now and I'm not entirely sure what it's doing,
0:40:31 > 0:40:33so I'm hoping you can explain.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38OK, well, it kept track of things like your socialisation,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40your focus and your activity levels
0:40:40 > 0:40:43and these are key things for assessing mental health.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45Tell me what you've found out about me.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Well, let's look at it here
0:40:47 > 0:40:52and see what you've been doing and then what it's been doing.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56So, first of all, we can see your activity level - are you
0:40:56 > 0:40:59curled in a ball some place and you never get out of your bed, or
0:40:59 > 0:41:03are you out and around, or are you sort of manic and you're everywhere?
0:41:03 > 0:41:06So you see a five over on the left-hand side,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09that's how active you've been, and on the right is
0:41:09 > 0:41:14the average, so you're just exactly average when it comes to activity.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22A drop in physical activity often goes hand in hand with depression.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25But Sandy can track much more.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28By monitoring my phone use,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32he can also tell how I'm interacting socially.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35Do you call your friends?
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Do you call workmates, things like that?
0:41:38 > 0:41:40Phones can also sense when there's other people around
0:41:40 > 0:41:43because they have these little short range radios called Bluetooth.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47And so my phone can see your phone, and they can shake hands.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51And if we go over here, to Social,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54you'll see that you're quite a bit more social than other people.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58So you're good to go here, this is good.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03And then if we go down here, this is Focus and you can see that
0:42:03 > 0:42:07you're a little bit more focused than the average person.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10But how does it know about my focus? What do you mean by that?
0:42:10 > 0:42:12We all know what happens when you're not focused.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16One of the things that people do is that they fuss with their phone,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19they look at their messages, they read news, they...you know,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22so you can get a sense of whether you're focused
0:42:22 > 0:42:25or whether you're distracted all the time.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31Though it seems astonishing that the way you use your phone
0:42:31 > 0:42:35could give an insight into your state of mind, trials of Sandy's app
0:42:35 > 0:42:39have demonstrated its success when compared with a doctor.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44Sandy's convinced that mobile phones might have a huge role
0:42:44 > 0:42:46to play in keeping us healthy.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50In fact, he believes they might even be able to prevent
0:42:50 > 0:42:54the spread of diseases that affect millions.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02It turns out that when people get the flu they behave differently.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05They begin to retract a little bit, they don't feel so good,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08they call different people, they tend to call their friends
0:43:08 > 0:43:11more than their workmates, things like that.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13And it's actually a signature that you can detect
0:43:13 > 0:43:15with about 80% accuracy.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21So I could see when you look like you're getting the flu
0:43:21 > 0:43:25and I can see that somebody else is not getting the flu...
0:43:27 > 0:43:30..and then I can see that the two of you spent some time together...
0:43:32 > 0:43:33..and they began to get
0:43:33 > 0:43:39flu behaviour, which tells me that you infected them at that meeting.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42And, of course, normal flu is not that bad
0:43:42 > 0:43:45but every once in a while we get these pandemics that kill
0:43:45 > 0:43:47literally hundreds of millions of people
0:43:47 > 0:43:48and we're defenceless against it.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51This is a startling thing - the idea that you might track the
0:43:51 > 0:43:55spread of a pandemic by something other than taking blood tests from
0:43:55 > 0:43:59people or saliva samples, or them going and seeing their physician.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03It's a rather amazing thing that you could actually watch
0:44:03 > 0:44:05the progress of the disease...
0:44:07 > 0:44:09..because then you could actually do something about it.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14You could say, "OK, people in this neighbourhood
0:44:14 > 0:44:16"don't go to work today."
0:44:17 > 0:44:20Or, "Don't go to this cafeteria."
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Or whatever sort of intervention you want.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27But you could actually begin stopping it.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41But to bring about this game-changing shift in health care,
0:44:41 > 0:44:45we'll need to give up our most personal information
0:44:45 > 0:44:49to people who can mine it and spot the patterns within.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54And, understandably, not everyone will be comfortable with that.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59The world is now full of people with their mobile phones
0:44:59 > 0:45:03and their mobile devices streaming terabytes of information
0:45:03 > 0:45:07about their habits and their daily lives. And I completely
0:45:07 > 0:45:10understand the unease that people feel about giving
0:45:10 > 0:45:13that information up to others.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17But, in medicine, that's all we've ever done.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21We've gone to doctors, strangers, and we've told them
0:45:21 > 0:45:26those intimate details in the hope that they might bring us help.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33And in a sense, that's what Sandy Pentland and people like him
0:45:33 > 0:45:37are trying to do, just taking that model and dragging it into
0:45:37 > 0:45:42the 21st century in the hope that will change the face of medicine.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Over the last couple of weeks, I've become increasingly
0:45:53 > 0:45:55obsessed about monitoring myself.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59But I'm starting to realise that there's much more to this
0:45:59 > 0:46:02than just doing more exercise.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07By monitoring ourselves and pooling that information,
0:46:07 > 0:46:09we could unearth knowledge
0:46:09 > 0:46:12that would revolutionise the way we practise medicine.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18We could share our data and begin to look for patterns that unlock
0:46:18 > 0:46:21the secrets of human health.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34I've come to a small town in Florida
0:46:34 > 0:46:37to meet someone who's looking for those patterns,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41and who's moving forwards at a pace that seems barely believable.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49So far, we've had a hint of the shape of things to come
0:46:49 > 0:46:51for the future of medicine.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56But the girl I'm about to talk to IS the future of medicine,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59and, incredibly, she doesn't have a medical degree.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02In fact, she doesn't have a degree at all
0:47:02 > 0:47:05and that's because she's still at school.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12I mean, I think it's exciting that as a teenager I've been
0:47:12 > 0:47:14able to find something
0:47:14 > 0:47:17I'm so passionate about that I want to spend my weekends working.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22'What sets Brittany Wenger apart are her computer-coding skills.'
0:47:22 > 0:47:25There is a community of us out there who are really interested
0:47:25 > 0:47:29in science and through the different kind of science competitions...
0:47:29 > 0:47:31'She recently won the prestigious Google Science Fair
0:47:31 > 0:47:33'for a computer program she's written.'
0:47:33 > 0:47:37I think I'd always had a pretty keen interest in computers but then
0:47:37 > 0:47:40in seventh grade I was taking this course on futuristic thinking.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42In seventh grade... How old were you in seventh grade?
0:47:42 > 0:47:45- So that would be about 11 or 12. - Right.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47And I came across a concept that computers could actually be
0:47:47 > 0:47:51programmed to transcend human knowledge and to detect
0:47:51 > 0:47:55really complicated patterns that humans have no idea how to detect.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58So I was enthralled and I went home, I started buying coding books
0:47:58 > 0:48:01and I decided to teach myself how to code.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05'What happened next was a family tragedy that inspired
0:48:05 > 0:48:07'Brittany to do something remarkable.'
0:48:08 > 0:48:11I was 15, my cousin was actually diagnosed with breast cancer
0:48:11 > 0:48:14and I saw first-hand the kind of impact this disease
0:48:14 > 0:48:15has on a woman and her family.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18So I got really inspired to get involved and make a difference
0:48:18 > 0:48:20and I started researching breast cancer.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23And so that's when I really wanted to connect my two passions
0:48:23 > 0:48:26and try to create a better breast cancer diagnostic system.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31'And she's written this program in her spare time.'
0:48:39 > 0:48:42'Looking at a biopsy of human tissue to determine
0:48:42 > 0:48:46'whether it's cancerous or not is a notoriously difficult thing to do.'
0:48:48 > 0:48:51'Brittany's program is designed to help doctors
0:48:51 > 0:48:53'to analyse what they're seeing.'
0:48:53 > 0:48:57So, for example, see these nucleoli, they're the small dots.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59The small dots, right.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02They're really prominent and there are multiple ones per cell.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04And that could mean that the mass is cancerous.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06But that is actually benign.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08And this is just an example of why they are
0:49:08 > 0:49:12so difficult to diagnose, because even this benign mass is
0:49:12 > 0:49:14exhibiting some cancerous attributes.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18I have horrible nightmares of spending hours staring at these
0:49:18 > 0:49:24slides at medical school, trying to decide whether it was cancer or not.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28And it just seemed nearly impossible to me.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30I mean, this is a tough task.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33'It's an incredibly difficult task,
0:49:33 > 0:49:36'for which Brittany has found a solution.'
0:49:36 > 0:49:38So what I did is I created an artificial neural network
0:49:38 > 0:49:40which is this really cool type of program that can
0:49:40 > 0:49:44model a brain's neurons and their interconnections, so it can actually
0:49:44 > 0:49:48learn how to detect patterns that humans have no idea how to detect.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50And in the end it learns how to detect
0:49:50 > 0:49:54whether these masses are cancerous or not.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57So your computer knows how to do this?
0:49:57 > 0:50:02Yes. It actually diagnoses over 99% of cancer patients correctly,
0:50:02 > 0:50:04which is huge.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07Yes, so 99% of the time it will pick it up?
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Yes, which... It's exciting when you think about it.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Er, it's more than exciting.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17'Brittany's program effectively turns a doctor's hunch about
0:50:17 > 0:50:23'whether a biopsy is cancerous into something far more scientific.'
0:50:23 > 0:50:27So what this does is provides a set of nine pretty objective
0:50:27 > 0:50:30questions about what they're seeing on the screen in front of them,
0:50:30 > 0:50:36and then feeds that quite complicated set of information
0:50:36 > 0:50:41to your program which then instantly decides cancer or not cancer?
0:50:41 > 0:50:42Yeah, exactly.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46It's able to detect patterns in this scoring system that are too
0:50:46 > 0:50:49subtle for humans to detect.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51So doctors enter these different values,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54and then they would click send, and in under a second,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56the service is able to respond
0:50:56 > 0:50:58as to whether it thinks it's cancerous or not,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01and so this particular mass would be cancerous.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06Wow! That's gobsmacking. I mean, absolutely gobsmacking!
0:51:11 > 0:51:14I feel like I've had a glimpse of the future -
0:51:14 > 0:51:17a sense of the great prizes we might
0:51:17 > 0:51:20find in the huge volumes of data
0:51:20 > 0:51:24that monitoring our bodies can give us.
0:51:33 > 0:51:34I've come back to the UK...
0:51:37 > 0:51:41..and to the information that could change our lives today.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52'Three weeks ago, I began an experiment in self-monitoring.'
0:51:52 > 0:51:56- Hello!- Hi, Kevin.- Hi!
0:51:56 > 0:52:01'Celia, Cathy, Pam, and I wanted to see if anyone could get healthier,
0:52:01 > 0:52:05'lose weight, or find out how to sleep better.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08'Now it's time to see if anything has changed.'
0:52:08 > 0:52:10And what have you found out about us then?
0:52:10 > 0:52:12Well, quite a few interesting things.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14I know when everyone goes to bed, when everyone wakes up,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17where they go every day, erm...
0:52:17 > 0:52:19how much sleep they get, how much deep sleep -
0:52:19 > 0:52:21pretty much everything.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25And, in fact, Kevin, you had the lowest average sleep of everyone.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29I think it must be medical training that did that.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33So, my average sleep was what sort of hours?
0:52:33 > 0:52:35About 6.7 hours a night.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38It's well below what people generally believe is normal.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41And, Cathy, you were the most consistent of all because,
0:52:41 > 0:52:43as you can see, you were just under eight hours.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45You're about 7.8 every night.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49And Pam had the highest average. You have over eight hours a night,
0:52:49 > 0:52:51and that is fairly consistent.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54I think I'm sleeping better than I used to.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57My sleep pattern was really, really bad.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02And I do think I have slept better with the extra exercise.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The peaks on Pam's sleep graphs tell us
0:53:07 > 0:53:09when she was awake or sleeping lightly.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14The troughs show when she was sleeping deeply.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17With graphs from every night,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21there's the potential to find out how to sleep better.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27It was saying that I was having about an hour of deep sleep
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and I found that slightly concerning because I'm wondering
0:53:30 > 0:53:34whether I need more deep sleep than just that short amount.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37You may only need an hour of deep sleep to feel good.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40You've got to know what's normal for you, and what affects your sleep.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42So did you find anything affected your sleep?
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Well, there was two nights this week when I had one glass of red wine.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50Now, I try not to drink during the week, but up until that point,
0:53:50 > 0:53:55I'd been having round about the hour of deep sleep in a night.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58On those two nights, my deep sleep went down to 36 minutes
0:53:58 > 0:54:01on one night, and 34 minutes on another.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04Perhaps red wine and me don't mix for my deep sleep.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07I realised that even if I have a decaf coffee,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11which I used to have about 9ish, I have a bad sleep,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14so I've knocked that on the head completely now.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18That's one of the incredible benefits of self-monitoring -
0:54:18 > 0:54:20it allows us to learn things about ourselves
0:54:20 > 0:54:23and change our behaviour for the better.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27So did it make a difference to our fitness or even our weight?
0:54:27 > 0:54:31So we've got the daily step count total.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33Everyone started coalescing, actually,
0:54:33 > 0:54:35around a 10,000 step average per day,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39which is what the general guideline is to keep active,
0:54:39 > 0:54:41especially for people in sedentary jobs like us.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44This three weeks has been quite a revelation for me.
0:54:44 > 0:54:49Cos I went out consciously most days to do extra steps.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51You sort of get in this you can't stop
0:54:51 > 0:54:54until you've reached that magic 10,000.
0:54:54 > 0:54:55In a way it's a bit crazy.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58And, Celia, did you ever get to the point of madness with any of this stuff?
0:54:58 > 0:55:03I had got to the point where I would set myself a goal for the day
0:55:03 > 0:55:07and, if I hadn't met it, then I did end up running on the spot
0:55:07 > 0:55:12as I was watching television, or just trying to get those steps up.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15Do you think you've seen improvements in your health
0:55:15 > 0:55:17other than just doing a whole bunch of steps?
0:55:17 > 0:55:20We've all lost weight doing the challenge so that's a good thing.
0:55:20 > 0:55:21I lost about four pounds.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23I lost four and a half, so...
0:55:23 > 0:55:27I lost two and a half so the extra exercise does pay off.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29I did very little before.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31I'd sit at my desk all day in front of a computer,
0:55:31 > 0:55:33I didn't walk the dog that often.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37Now I go home from work and I'm out there walking the dog.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42Same as Pam. We're going out for walks, I'm going out for walks in the evening.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44So I am... I have changed and I will continue.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49It's interesting that Cathy, Celia
0:55:49 > 0:55:53and Pam all in their own way managed to change their behaviour.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56They all increased the amount of activity they did.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59And that's more than a bit of fun, that's important
0:55:59 > 0:56:02because, in medicine, if you could prescribe one thing
0:56:02 > 0:56:05that would improve everybody's health,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07then that thing would be exercise.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Exercise improves your physiology in ways that doctors
0:56:10 > 0:56:13and pills alone never could.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17And so that's what even those simple devices have managed to achieve -
0:56:17 > 0:56:22they've managed to help people change their behaviour in ways
0:56:22 > 0:56:24that were otherwise impossible before.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34Today we all have the capacity to monitor our health.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37The devices we carry already do it without us even noticing.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42And in the data that we gather lies great opportunity.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48But ultimately, it's what we choose to do with that information
0:56:48 > 0:56:50that will make all the difference.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56We stand early in the 21st century,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00looking for the things that will transform medicine in the same way
0:57:00 > 0:57:04that antibiotics and vaccinations did at the start of the 20th.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08But I've become convinced over the last few weeks,
0:57:08 > 0:57:10through everything I've seen,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13that this digital revolution really might achieve that.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18By giving us access to information that we never before had,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20by helping us understand our bodies
0:57:20 > 0:57:23and the consequences of the things we do in our lives,
0:57:23 > 0:57:30I really do think that this might be the key to longer, healthier lives.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd