Advances in technological capabilities proceed at such a rate that finding how, or importantly, whether these can benefit society takes far longer.
The phone in your pocket (or perhaps carefully placed in your eyeline to ensure alerts can reach you quickly) contains significantly more processing capability that computer units supporting business a decade or two ago.
In June 2016, Statistica estimated there were over 2m applications that consumers could download, and given this study was six months ago, the number will doubtless have increased. A recent trend in mobile technology has been within the fitness space, but has it really been recent? Not really.
Having been an active hockey player, representing club, county and the West of England, I retired in my mid 30s. The prospect of running without a ball in sight was unheard of, and I spent the best part of five years growing unfit and fat, with exercise limited to a brisk walk to my village pub.
Then, inspired, by a former colleague I decided to run 10k. This was 2005, and to motivate me, I opted to run to raise funds for MacMillan who had done a wonderful job looking after my late dad some years earlier.
An insurer has a vested interest in improving claims experience that in turn will reduce premiums for consumers. Whilst the run was far from enjoyable, roll the clock forward and two years later and I was on the starting line (well standing in a lake) in Austria attempting to complete Ironman Austria; a gruelling event that demands a 3.8m swim, an uncomfortable 180k bike ride, followed by a footslogging marathon. I used technology to help me achieve this goal.
Initially a simple sports watch that monitored my heart rate from a chest belt and a GPS chip that was unattractively attached to my cycling and running shoes. The summary also included the number of calories consumed – vital so I could licence myself a beer or two after particularly long sessions fooling myself I’d earned it.
Even 12 years ago, this was not cutting edge technology. More serious amateur athletes were using more sophisticated technology providing even more data. But let’s be clear, the technology did not get me from the start line to the finish line but I believe without it, the hundreds of hours of training would have been less instructive, and less informative.
It provided important metrics, and provided controls to discipline my training perhaps the market leaders at the time were Polar and Garmin, with Garmin still a market leader.
Wearable technology providing fitness data are no longer limited to the obsessive athlete keen to achieve new personal bests, but for all.
To be able to easily record the number of steps taken, how far you have walked, how many stairs climbed, calories consumed (mostly estimated) is (maybe) of interest to some.
The chances are once you had tried this for a while (like sleep measurement applications) the information, once novel and probably shared extensively on social media became mundane. These wearables can also create great graphics and GPS maps; having returned to hockey,
I recently wore a GPS monitor and the map looked like someone had unravelled red wool over a green rectangle.
All these measurements, graphs, and values – will they help? Did the mass of telephony data that became available in the 1990s to measure phone calls and patterns improve the way firms dealt with customers over the phone?
It gave birth to the “call centre” that in my experience valued (perhaps still does) cold metrics over people’s experience –customers and staff (who became became “agents”).
Without doubt such data can enable firms to better manage phone calls, and by performing pattern analysis have a greater understanding of customer demand so should be more equipped to provide acceptable service. However, did telephony data in, and of, itself provide better service to customers? I’m not sure it did.
Back to “wearables”. A randomised clinical trial was performed in Pittsburgh University on 471 adults to answer the question does a technology-enhanced weight loss intervention deliver better weight loss outcomes than a “standard” weight loss intervention.
The study last two years between 2010 and 2012 with results were published in September 2016 in the Journal of American Medical Association. The groups were split in two but for the first six months, all the participants had specific exercise and diet plans, and health counselling sessions for six months.
After six months, one group continued with monthly counselling while the other were given wearables that would monitor diet and exercise with feedback available using technology. After 18 months, both groups showed significant improvements, but the group that had the regular counselling lost almost twice as much weight.
This research was led by Dr John Jakicic who is one of only 17 national experts recently appointed by the United States’ Secretary of Health and Human Services to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee.
Within motor insurance, black box technology is used to monitor and influence driver behaviour using a points system that will keep premiums lower for lower risk drivers, while driver breaching agreed rules, speed, distances driven, time of driving could see premiums increase or cover be removed.
General insurance is short term whereas most income protection, critical illness and life insurance is long term.
An insurer has a vested interest in improving claims experience that in turn will reduce premiums for consumers. Some already provide incentives and opportunities for customers to improve or maintain healthy lifestyles taking advantage of the technology.
This fascinating study shows wearables alone can provide benefits but it does not optimise outcomes. Being able to analyse your life into measurable data is interesting, whether it is understanding your genetic composition or knowing if you burn off a Mars quicker than your partner, but it is just information.
When I reflect on my Ironman race (I use the term “race” very loosely), the technology was vital to help me achieve my goal, but more crucially I was connected to a group of like-minded people who provided advice, support, and encouragement.
Many of these people I have never met, and those I did, I met for the first time anxiously in my wetsuit on the shores of the beautiful Lake Wörthersee.
To really make a difference for customers who need to improve their health, the insurers that will win, will be those that recognise technology is the enabler, but it is by working within a connected human community that will make a quantum and lasting difference.
Chris Pollard is founder of CP Protection Solutions
