The current COVID-19 pandemic is forcing millions of people to socially distance and remain at home as much as possible. Governments around the world are calling on their citizens to follow local requirements and recommendations to keep communities safe. While the results of social distancing and home quarantine are essential to keep the disease from spreading unchecked, it is not always easy to follow local health recommendations. Not going to work, not seeing your friends, or not going to your typical businesses is a sacrifice, and staying home most of the time can drive almost anyone stir crazy. Thankfully, modern technology has given us a slew of different gadgets to make social distancing more tolerable and more comfortable to endure so we can all do our part to slow the spread of the virus.
Whether you live alone or with housemates, sometimes it is nice to escape to another world even for a bit. Tune out your housemates or sounds from outside your house and relax with a pair of wireless headphones. Noise-canceling headphones are a nice plus, but any wireless headset will do the job without the hassle of wires. Put on your favorite music or an audio podcast to forget about the world. Listening to music while working or exercising can help you focus and give you an energy boost. Pick the right genre for your task at hand and let music make your life more enjoyable while you are in quarantine at home.
Most homes in North America these days have WiFi connections, but one router may not be enough to broadcast a signal across the entire space. There are many oMany things can disrupt or prevent your WiFi from reaching every corner of your home, but walls and distance are the most common issues. Your WiFi signal can only reach so far, which can leave you with dead zones with no WiFi. To solve this problem, add a WiFi booster or repeater that can extend your signal and eliminate dead zones. Place your WiFi repeater halfway between your router and the dead zone to extend your signal coverage; you have the option of either a desktop repeater just like your router or a wall plug-in for a stealthy WiFi boost.
Music and other audio lets you escape the world for a bit, but there are different ways you can escape. Social distancing has kept friends and family from seeing each other in person, but gaming lets you stay connected in the virtual world. There are a plethora of different online games you can play with your friends to socialize and have fun. Grab a gaming headset for voice chat and jump into your favorite digital world. Don’t be fooled by popular gaming commercials; there are more options than just games with guns. There is a gaming genre for every taste, from role-playing games and educational games to life-like simulations and action games.
You don’t have to buy an exp[ensive new computer or gaming console to game either. Mobile games have come a long way since Candy Crush, and there are full storied games available on mobile. Most laptops can also handle popular games, but you may have to mess with settings to achieve optimal performance, depending on your laptop. The next generation of gaming consoles, namely the PS5 and Xbox Series X, is coming out at the end of 2020, so if you do want to snag a console, now is a great time to get a console for a lower price.
Social distancing generally means not going to the gym, and you will have to find new ways to work out. Working out at home doesn’t have to be boring as there are many workout programs you can view online that don’t require equipment. There are undoubtedly online programs or routines that will make use of it if you have exercise gear at home. Fitness trackers are one of the most informative and straightforward pieces of workout gear. Use a fitness tracker like the famous Fitbit to monitor your heart rate, calories burned, and more depending on the model. Most fitness trackers have accompanying apps that help you track your fitness journey so you can use data to ensure you are moving in the right direction.
Social distancing isn’t ideal for most people. Staying home and not seeing your friends or family can be hard, but you can use technology to make your time at home more bearable. Use audio for escapism, boost your WiFi to eliminate dead zones, embrace gaming as a way to connect with friends or jump into a virtual world, and use online programs with your fitness tracker to stay fit at home.
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What is “precision medicine?”
Is it something new? Not really. When I give my blood which is A+, it is matched to recipients with the same blood type. That is precision medicine. But what’s different now is that precision medicine is associated with an individual’s genomic map, as well as the study of that person’s environment and lifestyle choices. We know today that many diseases have genetic roots. Others can be impacted by environmental changes which can trigger a gene in your DNA map to switch on or off. This is referred to as epigenetics, the alteration of our genetics by environment and lifestyle.
The combination of the genome and studying the person’s epigenetics’ profile should give medical researchers and doctors a better understanding of causes, prevention, and treatment of diseases. And the use of the word “precision” refers to targeting the individual rather than a one-size fits all approach that remains common in medicine to this day.
So How Will the Fitbit Fit?
For my wife’s birthday this summer she was given a Fitbit. She wanted a device to inspire her to be more active and the impact was immediate. In fact, it drove me crazy as she counted her daily steps and would even walk in place in our apartment if she was missing her daily targets. It got to a point where she was almost obsessive about tracking her daily progress on her smartphone and glancing at her wrist every hour on the hour. I even put a step counter on my smartphone and began tracking my daily numbers until the app clearly started making distance and count errors. I have since removed it but have not stopped my daily walks.
The “All of Us” project plans initially to give out 10,000 Fitbit trackers to collect heart rate, physical activity, and sleep behaviour. This information in the project today is collected by those in the project making office visits and responding to questionnaires. With the Fitbit, however, the wearable device will provide precise lifestyle and environmental data. The Fitbit models chosen include the Charge 2 and Alta HR and will be made available for one year. When asked about Fitbit’s participation, Adam Pellegrini, General Manager of Fitbit Health Solutions, stated, “As part of the global shift towards precision medicine, wearable data has the potential to inform highly personalized healthcare”...and…“Through this historic initiative, we will be able to see the role that Fitbit data can play on the path to better understanding how individualization can help to prevent and treat disease.”
Currently, Fitbits are being used in biomedical research including clinical trials and funded research, with 482 publications taking advantage of the wearable data the devices collect to study diabetes, cardiovascular health, oncology, mental health and post-surgical recovery.
But for those of you who believe flu shots are bad, or just like the idea of an application that can work with your Fitbit(R) to warn you when you might be getting sick, there is achu.
How does it work?
achu accesses Fitbit data. When you start feeling unwell you tell the application. It then modifies its algorithm to the symptoms and data you provide. Finally it calculates your daily probability of getting sick.
According to Michael Morra, the CTO of Datapult, the company that developed the application, “The more interactive you are with achu, the more accurate it will be in helping you to stay healthy.” If you don’t have a Fitbit, achu can still be helpful providing daily tips to help you boost your immune response. The application features a dashboard that determines your health risk, tracks symptoms and provides metrics to let you know what it thinks is coming.
The application dashboard tells you your health risk, tracks symptoms and provides sickness calibration metrics. For data addicts who are also hypochondriacs, you can’t get better than this.
A bit about Datapult. The company is Ontario based, located in Aurora, Ontario. It describes itself as a builder of applications that work with wearable technology. The license agreement states the application is for “informational and entertainment purposes only.”
I think I’ll keep getting the flu shot.
