Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Metrics of Health

Taking fitness tracking one step further (and often integrating with fitness trackers like the Fitbit) is an army of data-gathering devices that track blood pressure, weight, body mass, body fat, height, heart rate, body size (calipers), eye health, and more. Many of these devices send the data to your computer via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB connection, enabling you to track this via spreadsheet.

Think of how useful these metrics are for healthcare! Doctors can give more accurate diagnoses to patients and have a better success rate in their practice by getting a snapshot of the patients’ daily wellbeing and habits! As Dr. House from TV says, everybody lies to their doctor. Fitness tracking removes a layer of vanity fibbing that all patients fall victim to.

If you provide a service like insurance, you can play with this type of data to reduce rates and offer more effective coverage. Researchers can broaden their studies to include data from everyday patients, or conduct research on data from individuals meeting varying qualifications.

One interesting thing about tracking your own health daily is the tendency to make better choices as you see the real numbers behind your blood pressure and other health metrics (see Figure 20-3). It removes the white coat syndrome excuse entirely, putting responsibility for your health back in your hands and giving you access to your own data and control over your future.

These are the kind of metrics that inspire innovation in social ...