Changes

==== Manage health conditions ====

==== Manage health conditions ====

Doctors get much more precise, objective, and detailed description from data than patients provide verbally. This has been good enough to prove something to doubters, even to the medical community. Patients get a clearer picture of their health which they can use to make better decisions.<ref>https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1124772.1124910</ref> Patients can gauge their doctor's performance better. Self tracking could reduce medical costs.<ref>https://flowingdata.com/2022/06/24/when-americans-had-intercourse-with-opposite-sex-for-the-first-time/</ref><ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49775085_Reducing_case_ascertainment_costs_in_US_population_studies_of_Alzheimer's_disease_dementia_and_cognitive_impairment_-_Part_2</ref>  

Doctors get much more precise, objective, and detailed description from data than patients provide verbally. This has been good enough to prove something to doubters, even to the medical community. Patients get a clearer picture of their health which they can use to make better decisions.<ref>https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1124772.1124910</ref> Patients can gauge their doctor's performance better. Self tracking could reduce medical costs.<ref>https://flowingdata.com/2022/06/24/when-americans-had-intercourse-with-opposite-sex-for-the-first-time/</ref>  

Chronic or sub-clinical health conditions, and effects of lifestyle choices, like veganism,<ref>https://www.vegansociety.com/shop/veg-1-supplements</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_nutrition</ref> may be monitored using personal health tracking. Remedies such as weight loss diets and melatonin can be tested for effectiveness with health tracking. Even if no remedies are found, tracking provides piece of mind by showing the patient that this condition is like previous ones that have resolved.  

Chronic or sub-clinical health conditions, and effects of lifestyle choices, like veganism,<ref>https://www.vegansociety.com/shop/veg-1-supplements</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_nutrition</ref> may be monitored using personal health tracking. Remedies such as weight loss diets and melatonin can be tested for effectiveness with health tracking. Even if no remedies are found, tracking provides piece of mind by showing the patient that this condition is like previous ones that have resolved.  

Variety of literature shows the validity of N-of-1 approaches. For examples search google scholar for patient-led studies.<ref>https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=patient-led+study</ref> 12 self experimenters won Nobel prizes.<ref>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298919/</ref>

Variety of literature shows the validity of N-of-1 approaches. For examples search google scholar for patient-led studies.<ref>https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=patient-led+study</ref> 12 self experimenters won Nobel prizes.<ref>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298919/</ref>

Observational studies are important.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis</ref> Epidemiological studies are much easier to conduct with digital tools.<ref>https://www.jmir.org/2022/6/e35804</ref> If continuous self tracking data is taken from multiple people it becomes a longitudinal study.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitudinal_study</ref> These are more reliable than single slice observational studies like the ones most often used by papers about diets. Unfortunately, mobile health companies that aggregate data from users rarely do it with real scientific goals in mind. Instead you should contribute that data to researchers through [[Open Humans]].

Observational studies are important.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis</ref> Epidemiological studies are much easier to conduct with digital tools.<ref>https://www.jmir.org/2022/6/e35804</ref><ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49775085_Reducing_case_ascertainment_costs_in_US_population_studies_of_Alzheimer's_disease_dementia_and_cognitive_impairment_-_Part_2</ref> If continuous self tracking data is taken from multiple people it becomes a longitudinal study.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitudinal_study</ref> These are more reliable than single slice observational studies like the ones most often used by papers about diets. Unfortunately, mobile health companies that aggregate data from users rarely do it with real scientific goals in mind. Instead you should contribute that data to researchers through [[Open Humans]].

== Reasons Against and Problems ==

== Reasons Against and Problems ==