Here comes the Quantified Selfstra

The launch of Telstra's eHealth initiative this week was a curious affair. Most of the focus was on ReadyCare, Telstra's joint venture with Swiss company Medgate set up to provide general practitioner services over the phone. It's at least six months from becoming reality.

In contrast no mention was made of close to 20 ehealth offerings detailed a glossy brochure handed out at the event, all of which, it seems, are services that are already in operation. So quite likely most of what you've read in the news about Telstra Health represents only the tip of the iceberg. You can find most of them on this web page.

When I asked about these Telstra told me that the providing entities were a mixture of companies acquired by Telstra, companies in which it has taken equity and those whose products and services it has licensed.

So there is certainly more, much more to Telstra Health than Telstra has talked about so far and some it likely centres around how Telstra can leverage the personal monitoring devices that will, inevitably, be a major component of many ehealth initiatives.

According to Frost & Sullivan, "wearable technology has gained considerable traction especially in the health and wellness industry." That's stating the obvious, but it was made in a press release announcing a F&S report: 'Sensor Technology Innovations Enabling Quantified-Self', in which F&S said: "The market for quantified-self technologies – apps that enable people to track and quantify aspects of their daily lives – is currently in the embryonic stage. However, explosive growth is expected in coming years."

It added: "As healthcare is one of the main industries impacted by the quantified-self movement, acquiring accurate data and ensuring seamless interoperability are key challenges. In addition, data sharing among health services and pharmaceutical firms raises privacy concerns. Healthcare companies must ensure that data collected from clients is not shared without direct consent."

Assured privacy and security will underpin everything Telstra does in eHealth, or else the initiative will be dead in the water. As a company that clearly intends to be active in all areas of eHealth, interoperability will also feature strongly in its offerings. In short Telstra is well placed to take a lead position in the quantified self market.

Similarly, F&S observes: "To get the healthcare industry further involved in quantified-self, enhancing the connectivity of wearable devices with technology companies to support data exchange will also be crucial." That's another function Telstra Health will be well-placed to fulfil.

But just what is the quantified self? According to F&S: "Quantified-self facilitates the tracking of diet, sleep, heart rate, activity, exercise and moods and allows individuals to gain better insights on physiological parameters that were never examined earlier.”

The movement, and the term, was created by two editors from Wired Magazine, Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly. You’ll find a detailed explanation of it in this 2009 article by Wolf.

There is already a global movement for self monitoring and quantified self (http://www.quantifiedself.org). It has over 100 Meetup groups around the world and one each in Sydney and Melbourne with over 400 members between them.