Michael Snyder's biosensors
Geneticist Michael Snyder was wearing seven biosensors collecting data about his health when he noticed changes in his heart rate and oxygen level during a flight. (Stanford Photo / Steve Fisch)

Stanford geneticist Michael Snyder’s research into wearable biosensors has turned into a case study demonstrating the promise of predictive medicine – with Snyder as the star subject.

Snyder had himself and 59 other people hooked up with an array of up to seven biosensors that are designed to monitor heart rate, skin temperature, oxygen uptake, body activity and other health metrics.

The continuous sensor readings were supplemented by periodic lab tests, focusing on factors ranging from blood chemistry to gene expression. It’s similar to the personalized approach to wellness that’s being pioneered by Seattle-based Arivale.

“We want to study people at an individual level,” Snyder explained in a report on the study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The study, published today in PLOS Biology, shows that it’s possible to associate deviations from a health baseline with environmental conditions, illnesses or other factors that affect a person’s health. Once those deviations are distilled into algorithms, wearable sensors could provide an early warning about conditions ranging from common infections to the early signs of diabetes.

Or Lyme disease, as Snyder found out last year when he took a trip to Norway for a family vacation.

Snyder’s sensors detected a drop in blood oxygen levels and an increase in heart rate during his flight. Those changes weren’t out of the ordinary, but the levels didn’t return to normal as expected. Soon afterward, Snyder developed a fever and other signs of illness.

Two weeks before the big trip, Snyder had been helping his brother build a fence in rural Massachusetts. Based on the readings, Snyder suspected that he might have been infected with Lyme disease due to a tick bite.

In Norway, Snyder was able to get a prescription for doxycycline, an antibiotic used to treat Lyme disease. Subsequent medical tests showed that he did indeed pick up an infection.

“Wearables helped make the initial diagnosis,” Snyder said.

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The study suggests that wearables could be well-suited for picking up the early signs of inflammation, which is associated with conditions ranging from Lyme disease to autoimmune diseases and even cancer.

The researchers also developed an algorithm to determine which participants in the study were likely to have insulin resistance, which is a precursor for Type 2 diabetes, based solely on their step counts and the patterns in their heart rates.

The sensors weren’t always accurate, and the researchers acknowledged that there’s a potential for false alarms. “But what is good about what the authors did here is that they weren’t just relying on one device,” said Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Institute, who was not involved in the study. “They did everything they could with the kind of sensors that are available today to get data that was meaningful.”

Tens of millions of fitness trackers and smartwatches already have been sold. Most of those devices merely monitor activity, but a new wave of wearables could easily be modified to track a wider range of health indicators and send them into the cloud for automatic analysis.

Someday soon, you may be able to set your smartphone’s alarm to alert you not only about the end of your workout, but also about the start of an infection.

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