Health analysts estimate that around 70 percent of the annual $2.6 trillion bill for health care costs in the U.S. are the consequence of potentially changeable human behavior. The avoidable price tag for complications from obesity and diabetes alone adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that lifestyle changes in diet and behavior resulting in the sustained loss of just 10–15 pounds can reduce the risk of getting diabetes by 58 percent.
.. A much-debated study published in Health Affairs in 2013 said the programs may actually “shift costs to workers who can least absorb them” because healthy workers end up getting discounts while sick workers pay the maximum premium.
.. The auto insurance industry has been leading the way on the integration of tracking and insurance for years. Almost every major auto insurance provider now offers discounts for drivers who allow their driving habits to be tracked.
.. Let your teenage son go joyriding in the bad part of town at midnight…. and maybe you lose your discount.
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The data gathered on your driving habits, suggested Birnbaum, will be detailed enough to suggest whether you are the kind of person who wouldn’t blink if your premium was raised.
“Predictive analytics,” says Birnbaum, crunching the “big data” generated by telematics, will be able infer quite a bit about you from where and when and how you drive — whether, for example, you might be a good candidate for other products, like life insurance. Or whether you might be a bad risk, not because of how you drive, but because of where you live or what your income level is. And then, of course, there’s the inescapable flip side to getting a discount for participation. If you don’t participate, you are effectively paying a higher rate.
.. Peppet also has concerns about whether bottom line considerations will result in pressure from insurers and employers for ever greater levels of participation in these programs. What happens to privacy when “wellness” becomes a condition of your employment? After the drug test, here’s your tracker. Don’t take it off.
Silicon Valley Wants ‘More Human’ Humans And yes, we should be suspicious
It’s one thing to make technology more human, with Siri-like apps that talk and listen. But Silicon Valley’s mantra-of-the-day centers around a push, strange as it sounds, to make humans more human.
.. This promise of additional “humanity” is a loaded phrase that not only underscores Silicon Valley’s hope of embedding its creations further into our lives, but also aims to dissuade us from looking too critically at the environment all these gadgets are creating.
With Gadgetry, New York Marathon May Be Watched Like No Other
“Our objective is to be the most technologically advanced marathon in the world,” said Peter Ciaccia, the chief production officer for New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon. “We can take this data and have fun with it.”
.. Marathon organizers track runners’ times at every mile split and every five kilometers of the course, roughly 1.6 million pieces of unique data, Ciaccia said. Such tracking will further alleviate the rare and eccentric cheating attempts and may be shared with runners in the future who are hoping to gain better insight into their race performance.
“We’re not at a level where we’re collecting step-by-step GPS data that a Garmin or FitBit would collect,” Ciaccia said. “But that’s not far away. We’re creating a concept of a runner cloud.”
The Magic in Apple’s Devices? The Hype
“Steve’s immortal contribution to Apple is the reality distortion field, to create expectations and then convince the audience to be a willing accomplice,” he said.
My colleague Claire Cain Miller pointed out in an email that Apple had achieved its positive publicity through scarcity.
“They build up so much hype by being so secretive and controlling with the press and then they do these blockbuster events,” she said. “They practically force people to speculate and help them build hype and then cheer when they finally release the info.”
.. Still, Americans have a much more intimate relationship with Apple than they did with previous business behemoths like United States Steel or General Electric. After all, we hold its devices in our hands, often using them to touch images and messages from people we love. That emotional connection continues to grow.
.. Mr. Jobs always mandated a central adjective for a device — the iPad was “magical,” the iPhone “revolutionary” and the App Store “legendary.” The watch? “Apple Watch is the most personal device we’ve ever created,” Mr. Cook said.y By literally creeping onto our skin — the watch has sensors on the back — the company is forging a deeper connection with its customers.
.. Apple’s core skill is not innovation but refinement. The company didn’t make the first smartphone, just the best one. Many tablets were tried, but only Apple’s opened up a category. Several smartwatches are on the market, but Apple is the one that people beyond geeks are paying attention to.