Making sense of Fitness data
A problem that is still prevalent now is the translation of numbers to insights. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. I believe it started somewhere in 2017 when I was at Babylon Health. Yet it still remains as one. Most companies out there cannot make sense of fitness and health data. They can show it to you and manipulate it in ways that look good, but there’s nothing to be extracted from it. If you buy today an Apple Watch costing £450, you will have to rely on a 3rd party company to make sense of the hundreds of data points it generates. Apple doesn’t do much besides showing some graphs. Sure, I walked 10k steps, but what does that mean to me as an individual? Or if my RHR is higher than usual, or my HRV lower. How should I change my routine? Should I push it harder today when I go for a run, or skip it altogether? It’s fascinating that very few companies do this properly, like Oura or Whoop. I have been a Oura user for close to 10 months and it’s incredible how accurate it has been. It’s been able to track my elevated RHR and skin temperature and make sense of that data. It recommends me to go easy on activity on the next day and immediately changes my calories goal for the day. What else can I ask?
I wonder at what point will Apple become a serious player in this area.