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A few weeks ago, I felt a little light-headed after a stressful day. ?Nothing crazy, but enough to get me worried.

My wife and I had the ?When?s the last time you got a check up?? conversation, after which we both concluded I was a complete idiot for not taking my health more seriously. ?I pride myself on eating right, on exercising religiously, on experimenting with all sorts of supplements and alternative treatments. ?But I?m too lazy to get a physical? Lame.

So I scheduled the physical. ?I was weighed, measured, and determined to be in generlaly good health. I was given a boilerplate speech about what a generic 35-year old man living a generic life in a generic town should be concerned about. ?I brought up the light-headedness and got more boilerplate about stress. ?If I wanted a referral to a specialist, he would give me one, but that referral would not be based on anything he actually learned by weighing, measuring, or talking to me-it would just be based on me asking for a referral.

In short, it was a complete and total waste of my time.

This wasn?t just the doctor?s fault. ? Studies dating back to 1979 have debunked the benefits of this practice, even going so far as to deem routine screening tests as ?potentially harmful?. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal writes for the NY Times:

In 1979, a Canadian government task force officially recommended giving up the standard head-to-toe annual physical based on studies showing it to be ?nonspecific,? ?inefficient? and ?potentially harmful,? replacing it instead with a small number of periodic screening tests, which depend in part on a patient?s risk factors for illness. Faced with such evidence, I have not gotten an annual physical since around the time I finished my medical training in 1989. I respect my doctors, but I see them only when I?m sick. I religiously follow schedules for the limited number of screening tests recommended for women my age ? like mammograms every two years and blood pressure checks ? but most of those do not require a special office visit.?(nytimes)

So, the annual physical is broken, and we?ve known this for over three decades. ?Yet like so many other things in healthcare, it?s a calcified artifact that will only budge through overwhelming, system-wide disruption.

And your mobile device already has the capacity for this disruption.

Comprehensive Data
Your iPhone can already gather an amazing range of data, including movement, biometrics (like heart rate), and manually inputted information on choices you make (like diet). ?With this information in hand, a doctor can actually give you real feedback on lifestyle choices, likelihood of risk, etc. ? More importantly, with this data in hand, you have more information than you?re doctor has ever had on you! ?You can do more with this information yourself than any doctor has ever been able to do during a physical exam. ?Of course, your doctor can (and in many cases, should) still help you decipher this data. ?Once we start using our iPhones to start tracking this information in a meaningful way, we?ll look back and laugh at the annual physical, with its one subjective data point.

Ongoing Feedback
The annual physical needs to become more frequent ? say a monthly check-in, because getting health feedback once a year is simply not enough to have a sustained impact on your life. ? Even the most zealous among us is never going to make it to the doctor once a month, but we would use a well-designed mobile app that allows us to communicate with healthcare professionals regularly. ?When your doctor (or nurse, alternative health care practitioner, or personal trainer) is already tracking your information and communicating reguarly with you, with real data in hand, the annual physical will look absurd in comparison.

Goal-setting & Health Optimization
Your annual physical is designed like insurance. ?The real purpose of the exam isn?t to optimize your health, but rather to make sure you?re not dying. ?There is so much more that could be done. ?Doctors could help you optimize your diet, figure out supplements that could help with a range of minor issues and improvements, and anticipate risk factors years before they become diseases.? This could transform self-motivated improvement into a concerted effort.

The current system has failed those of us interested in optimizing our health. ?As a result, instead of trusting doctors, we look to a range of other sources, professionals, and applications. ?But, rather than cut doctors completely out of our health, I believe that mobile disruption can involve them in more meaningful ways.

Source: http://www.monsoonco.com/blog/kil-the-annual-physical

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