Smart phones, medical data raise questions

Back in the analog age, we would have been amazed to know the amount of computing power most of us carry around in our pockets and purses today.

Digital capabilities that would have taken a railroad box car to ship in the 1950s can now be clipped to your belt or, increasingly, strapped to your wrist in the latest wearable technology.

Thousands of medical apps are available for everything from record keeping to X-ray and MRI viewing to add-on microscopes of high enough quality to be useful to healthcare workers.

Many smart watches are billed as fitness accessories, keeping track of the time we spend engaged in various exercises.

It doesn't take much imagination, however, to see how useful medical data from millions of sensors could be to researchers and businesses.

The day is fast approaching when the microchips attached to our bodies can perform rudimentary examinations formerly the exclusive domain of trained medical personnel.

Traditionally, researchers designed an experiment, found a group of people to study, and then used results from the specific data collected.

The new sources of data, however, make it possible for commercial companies to collect reams of information which can then be used for any number of research projects.

The situation raises all sorts of ethical and legal questions, however: Who owns my data? Should I trade it for, say, better insurance premium rates? Or be penalized because of a previously undiscovered medical condition?

It's one thing to have your Social Security number stolen by hackers, but what about your genetic profile?

Government will have to get involved with the issue, but primarly to protect the rights of the individual rather than the huge medical and pharmaceutical companies.

With proper restraints in place, however, wearable electronics have the potential to help find cures for diseases, alert subjects and their healthcare providers to dangerous conditions and revolutionize medical care.