The Connected Human

By: Dr Ramaswami Ramanan Millions of devices today connect via the internet, streaming massive volumes of data about our lives daily without the need for any (active) human input. Imagine a life where you are connected to your fridge, which alerts you when you're out of milk. Or devices that sense your mood, exercise, sleep patterns and environment and stream data live to your friends and family. Although this sounds futuristic, the ability to collect, analyse and securely distribute data in real-time is already a reality. Big data is huge right now, as well as data analytics. These two together are powerful tools, used to provide insight, through correlation, into almost every aspect of life. In combination with sensor technology readily available today, this provides massive opportunities for the improvement of the human experience. We just need to take a chance and adopt change. Seemingly disparate industries are working together to explore connections that are beginning to shape our modern existence. For example, the innovative application of technology in industry may be mirrored in the delivery of healthcare. Take for instance the BloodHound supersonic car. This extremely high-performance vehicle, through necessity, contains a multitude of sensors monitoring everything from tyre pressure to fuel levels, driver heartbeat to exhaust temperatures, engine performance to driver stress and hundreds of other things - a huge amount of data that is broken down, collated and sent securely in real-time to the trackside team for performance analysis and decision-making. This requires the deployment of algorithms and A.I. capable of making split-second decisions as BloodHound races down the track at a terrifying speed of nearly 500 metres per second - faster than a speeding bullet! This technology, combined with increasingly powerful smartphones, sensors and wearables, such as contact lenses that monitor a variety of health parameters, contain the power to revolutionise the healthcare industry by addressing issues such as integration, inter-operability, safety, confidentiality and information governance. Furthermore, these technologies are all available today; a wealth of information literally at our fingertips. This sudden boom in data collection technology in combination with rapidly expanding and diversifying fields, such as genomics, is stimulating a fresh look into Big Data - its beauty, benefits and headaches. So, what does the future hold? We are now seeing glimpses of a multiverse where the ‘human’ is positioned at the hub of connectivity, however there is also danger present with regard to privacy, abuse of information and the potential for a 'Big Brother' state to emerge. With great power comes great responsibility so we must ensure that those who have power over this new flood of data behave ethically and are held accountable for their actions. Dr Ramaswami Ramanan, Cardiac Surgeon and Clinical Lead in Digital Health for the Knowledge Transfer Network will be hosting 'The Connected Human' event in Cardiff as part of the Wales Festival of Innovation.