What does your reflection in the mirror say about your health?

What do you see when you look in the mirror every morning? It may depend on the sleep you logged the night before or the number of glasses of wine you stopped at. We each survey our face for puffiness, dark circles, new zits, deeper wrinkles…the list goes on, but what we’re really trying to understand is the health behind the appearance. It’s easy to see dark bags under our eyes and note that we need a full eight hours tonight.

In the world of health, that’s about as far as our morning mirror sessions can go. We try to understand what’s going on within our bodies by obscure manifestations on the surface. That’s all about to change.

Meet MIRROR

In the past year, the way we can interact with mirrors has changed drastically, and I’m not talking about mirror selfies. MIRROR, an interactive mirror that guides you through personalized workouts, has taken major strides in the realm of prevention. But there’s still room for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to be incorporated to their fullest potential to create better health detection systems.

Prevention

In 2018 Brynn Putnam founded MIRROR, taking at-home health to the next level. MIRROR looks like any ordinary mirror until you activate it and choose your workout. You are introduced to an instructor who coaches you to perform your best by working out alongside you and your still-visible reflection. You can compete with other owners who are in the system, train with experts, and workout live with friends.

By syncing your biometrics data, this mirror can personalize your workout to fit your health goals and abilities. This is the first step in preventing disease and putting your health and wellness into your hands. While this is a big step in interactive prevention, healthcare futurist Jose Morey says there are even larger advancements in the fields of detection.

Detection

Wouldn’t it be incredible if you actually knew exactly why you were breaking out with pimples instead of having to assume it’s the work stress…or maybe the fast food you ate the other night? You look in the mirror and the zit is circled in your reflection, followed by a full diagnostics report about what caused it. Seems like sci-fi you’d only find in an intergalactic spaceship that’s on its way to populate the moon…because we’ve definitely ruined Earth by this point.

Futurist and healthcare expert Jose Morey says this kind of technology might be within reach and coming to a bathroom near you sooner than you think. Throughout his studies of AI and ML in the healthcare industry, he’s found massive opportunities to disrupt the space.

The battle over privacy

The technology already exists, to some extent, that would allow for interactive mirrors to play a role in our at-home health. The biggest hurdle here is the use, storage, and collection of data. The data involved in accurate readings may cross lines of medical records privacy and put data into third-party hands. That seems to be a common theme across industries and, much like other industries, when the idea is introduced the laws and procedures will follow.

AI has redesigned industry after industry, and the healthcare industry has stayed undisrupted for too long. Sooner or later it may not be just your reflection staring back.

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(Featured image by bruce mars via Pexels)

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