Session

Beyond Quantified Self: How Quantifying Everything Is Not Enough To Improve Societal Wellbeing

Carlos Rodarte · Volar Health

Continuous health measurement through sensors and advancements in genetics is enabling us to quantify our bodies and environment in ways only imaginable at the turn of the century. However, despite an increasing set of tools and approaches, it remains surprisingly difficult to generate meaningful and actionable insights for individuals. To make matters worse, these tools and accompanying services often come with a high price tag, which inevitably results in the exclusion of a large portion of society.

How can we ensure the latest innovations and findings become broadly accessible? How do we integrate health more effectively into our everyday lives?

This talk will answer this question and explore several frameworks that we can use to maximize societal wellbeing. It will draw from ?historical examples of how transformative technologies became commonplace and dive into an evolution of health-promoting data networks. These networks will help individuals realize the value of their health data while enabling a host of health-related transactions that seem unimaginable today.

This talk will also discuss the current shortcomings of wellness initiatives and how novel education approaches and hyperlocal grassroots initiatives can usher in a suite of novel health-promoting behaviors.