Quantified Self To Lead a New Era of Self-Treatment

Efforts are underway to lower the prices of prescribed medications in the U.S., which has some of the highest drug prices in the world. But people may be able to lessen their reliance on certain drugs thanks to the “quantified self” movement, where the tracking of the body’s vital signs is now giving way to a new paradigm of self-treatment, made possible by a range of consumer medical devices, discusses Eugene Zabolotsky, CEO of Health Helper.

We’re fortunate to live in a time when medical breakthroughs are helping us slow or even halt disease progression. Personalized medicines, gene therapies, and synthetic biology are just a few of the advancements that are boosting life expectancy and helping people maintain good health as they age. 

But for far too many people, these promising treatments remain out of reach. The high price of pharmaceuticals, especially for patients in the U.S., is one of the main barriers when it comes to people accessing the treatments they need. 

Lawmakers may eventually tame drug prices somewhat, but the near-term picture is not particularly rosy: Some 350 drugsOpens a new window manufactured by the world’s top pharma companies will see price increases in 2023. And this follows a year when prices rose for 1,400 commonly used drugs. 

Price increases have ranged from the nominal to the astronomical over the years, but jumps of about 5% per yearOpens a new window for drugs already on the market have become the norm. And although many Americans don’t foot these bills out of pocket, they face rising premiums for coverage by the health plans that do pay for them. 

Quantified Self

Consumers cannot always get access to the treatments they need, and that is not a trend that is likely to reverse in the near future. So people are likely to do what they always do: Grow tired of waiting for the government to solve problems and find a way to take matters into their own hands. 

As we have seen during the ongoing evolution of the quantified self movement, people jump at the opportunity to use new technologies to take more control of their healthcare. Once given a chance, tens of millions of people started using sensors to track their movement, sleep, heart rate, diet and other important metrics. What used to require a doctor’s visit could be accomplished with a high-tech wristband or a smartphone app. 

But tracking and “quantifying” the self is just the first phase of a larger movement in healthcare, one that is seeing consumers take more of a direct hand in their own care. In the months and years ahead, people will be doing far more than tracking their health. In many cases, they will be going to the root causes of their symptoms thanks to a wave of tech-enabled, direct-to-consumer medical treatments. People won’t wait for the government to control drug prices. Instead, we will use new technologies to lessen our reliance on pricey pharmaceuticals. 

We’re lucky to benefit from so many great advances in biotech. But we are luckier still to live in a time when other technologies exist to support people as they do what they do best: taking the initiative when it comes to their health. 

Tracking and Treating

Since 2014, the market for wearable health-tracking devices has grown 20% year-over-yearOpens a new window . Mobile trackers are projected to be a $192 billion business opportunity by 2030. And the market for health-tracking smartphone applications – valued at $5 billion last year – is expected to reach $38 billion by 2029. 

But the quantified self phenomenon is doing more than helping people track their health: wearables and health apps are returning volumes of useful information to our healthcare system, including data about which conditions millions of people want to better understand and to treat. 

These include women’s health, mental health, dermatology, ear-nose-and-throat and arthritis. There are unaddressed treatment needs in these important areas, and we know this because of how people have been using apps and wearables. 

With this knowledge – and with the reality of high drug prices and the undesirability of taking any medication on a long-term basis because of unwanted side effects—we can see a rich area of opportunity for other treatment modalities to address these common conditions. 

See More: How IoT is Revolutionizing Remote Patient Monitoring and Chronic Disease Management

The Next Phase

People will lessen their reliance on expensive treatments and use technology to treat themselves at home whenever possible. And thanks to new advancements using techniques derived from nature—including heat, cold, vibration, light, aroma and acupressure—we will see more of this as time goes on. 

We are already seeing impressive growth among companies going straight-to-consumer with a new generation of medical devices. In just one example, Therabody, creator of the Theragun percussive-therapy massage devices, saw its revenues jump by 13X between 2018 and 2021. 

And in a sign of how quickly the landscape evolves, the category of Insect Bite Management–which did not even exist a few years ago – is now seeing a surge of new devices overtaking topical creams as a top choice among consumers.

It’s still early days, but direct-to-consumer devices are clearly staking out their place in healthcare. And they are poised to continue their rapid growth. The next stage of the quantified self phenomenon will not involve people skipping the prescriptions, surgeries or other treatments they need. It will be about lessening their reliance on procedures that are either invasive or prohibitively expensive. 

Tracking the body’s vital signs was never about skipping medical visits or cutting physicians out of the equation. It was about consumers taking more of a direct hand in their healthcare and supplementing the efforts of medical professionals and time-honored treatments.

In the next phase, we will see more of the same, but it will be even more exciting. This is because people will be taking the logical next step beyond tracking their health and will use consumer medical devices to steer the delivery of their own healthcare.

Are you aboard the quantified self movement? Do you think this will usher in a new era in the health sector? Share with us on  FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .

Image Source: Shutterstock

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