One such speech at TEDMED was given by speaker Bill Davenhall. Davenhall leads the health and human services marketing team at ESRI, which is a world leader in GIS (geographic information systems) spatial modeling and mapping software.
Davenhall spoke at length about a missing component in the health field, that would help doctor's to properly diagnose patients: Geo-Medicine, or environmental data, showing where patients lived and what those locations were like in terms of chemicals and toxic particles found in the air. He offered an experiment that he did with his friend.
From the Article:
"A friend of Davenhall’s allowed his location to be tracked every day for two years via his cell phone. Davenhall compiled the data and mapped his friends locations against those location’s environmental data — much of which is tracked by the National Institutes of Health. Davenhall noted that the government is tracking this data already — why isn’t is finding its way into our health conversations? Davenhall also believes that the mobile phone is the best place to track and monitor location for patients. He showed off a demo smartphone app that included air quality information as it might appear in an electronic health record."
After watching his speech, I found it compelling to think about my present location, my past locations, and my future locations of living in reference to my health. I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is a beautiful area, but about a mile or so from the Gowanus Canal, a polluted waterway that has attracted the attention of the US government for possible clean-up due to its high levels of toxic substances. Other Brooklyn areas, such as Greenpoint, have highly-toxic deposits of chemicals under the ground that are only being discovered and identified now. How is living here affecting my health?
Many questions arise from Davenhall's ideas, and many intriguing ideas. I feel it as important as he that our geographic location plays a part in our health diagnosis, and these records could be greatly important in avoiding potential or continued health risks. His experiement with GPS and mapping (which is what he does, after all) would be great to see patterns of movement in patients.
Yet, is his macrolevel enough? Do we need to see the real micro-patterns of movement and location? Restaurants? Specific streets? And, of course, if it got to this level, is it something that infringes on privacy?
What if insurance companies found out about our movements and where actually go? Would they charge more? Less? Would cities that are viewed as health risks try to clean up their act?
I feel that this is a complex issue, but one that merits discussion.
http://mobihealthnews.com/5112/tedmed-include-geo-medicine-in-ehrs/
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