What happens to society if we live beyond 130 years?

The Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment is a project of the European Union. By bringing stakeholders of healthcare together it hopes to design policy, gather technological solutions, and promote awareness of assisting an ageing society. I participated in one of its workshops at which we listened to possible scenarios and then had to come up with ideas about how to help society with technology. I enjoyed it very much. A key question was what would happen to society if we all lived beyond 130.

Life expectancy in classical Greece or Rome was 30 years. Starting in the 19th century it slowly changed. Since 1840, life expectancy at birth has risen about three months per year. This means that every year a newborn lives three months longer than those born the previous year. Sweden, which keeps exceptional demographic records, documents a female life expectancy of 45 in 1840 and 83 today.

When living beyond a hundred becomes a decision, rather than an opportunity, it is going to pose ethical issues to society it has never had before There is a saying that the first person to live beyond 150 has already been born. If it is true, we might be the new generation of super–centenarians.

Read more about it in my new book, My Health: Upgraded.

Crowdfunded Pocket Device Determines Risk for Stroke and Sudden Cardiac Arrest

I have been using dozens of devices to quantify my health and measure health parameters, but the real value is in determining risks for serious medical conditions. So far, it could have only taken place in healthcare institutions. The medical sensor revolution changes this status quo.

The WIWE pocket device can determine the risk for stroke and sudden cardiac death by doing an ECG analysis and using a smart algorithm, among others. They are currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

Here are their 4 main features:

1. Easy to use: and easy to wear. It only takes 60 seconds to record your ECG and it’s the same size as a business card holder.
2. It does it all: you can take ownership of your health with its built in functions like the pedometer, pulse oximeter and calorie counter.
3. Prevention: at its best. Our main goal is to ask people to take care of their heart and body before it’s too late.
4. Real time capturing: of your ECG and evaluating the risks of a sudden cardiac arrest and stroke.

Check out the campaign here and support them to get a big discount on the first devices.

Disclaimer: I have given pieces of advice to the WIWE team.

Paralyzed People Walk Again: A Dutch story

When I saw Amanda Boxtel standing up from her wheelchair and walking around with an exoskeleton around her body, the fact that exoskeletons have become real hit me. For years, movies have featured these robotic structures that carry people in them but still mimicking the movement of the human body. Avatar, The Edge of Tomorrow, Elysium and Matrix III all depicted them in a way it felt like it would always remain science fiction.

Exoskeletons are robotic structures that are attached to the joints in order to substitute muscle power when it’s needed. It contains a computer in the backpack which can power the robotic components for hours. The prototypes couldn’t really mimic the way we walk but it’s getting better; the elements are getting thinner and the energy source is getting stronger.

A good friend of mine, Remco Hoogendijk, Innovation manager of Sint Maartenskliniek, just told me a fantastic story. They had their first patient taking his exoskeleton home. This basically is the end of an 8 weeks-long training program and the exoskeleton they use is the ReWalk 6.0.

The patient is Ruben de Sain, a great guy how has had a Spinal Cord Injury ten years ago. That hasn’t stopped him in life. He works as a car salesman in a Seat garage and he loves to go skiing with his friends.

The device is not yet widely available and costs are high. Some patients turn to crowdfunding the required money for their exoskeleton, while payors might cover it for others. Using such a technology would mean that patients could go back to work and live a normal life without the constant help and supervision of caregivers. With 3D printing methods, the production costs of the elements could go down too. These directions paint a bright future.

Ekso Bionics and ReWalk have been the major players, the latter even having an FDA approval. DARPA presented exoskeleton elements that can help soldiers run tirelessly or jump higher. As this technology keeps on improving, the question soon will not be whether paralyzed people can walk again, but them walking faster than healthy people.

Top 7 Health Technologies at CES 2016

The CES technology show recently took place in Las Vegas. The show, well-known for its gadget news and video games, also featured exciting medical innovations. Forget about another dozen fitness wearables or new generation smartwatches – the top 7 breakthroughs are truly inspiring steps forward.

1) L’Oréal helps prevent skin cancer

A smart patch developed by the cosmetics giant, L’Oréal, measures UV radiation on the wearer’s body. It’s basically a sticker coated in special dye that changes color when light from the sun (or, presumably a UV light source) hits the patch. A smartphone app gauges the exposure and alerts the wearer in case of dangerous UV radiation levels that may raise the risk of skin cancer. A helpful addition to any beach-goer’s pack for the summer season.

2) Withings speeds up temperature measurements with Thermo

There are more and more smart thermometers out there but none of them is comfortable and accurate enough. Withings released Thermo that has 16 sensors and measures body temperature in seconds by pointing it at the temporal artery. It also has a clean interface and only one button, making it easy to use for anyone. This is the most sophisticated device of its kind so far.

3) Veta Smart Case for EpiPen to keep track of the allergy medication

The EpiPen is a disposable, pre-filled automatic injection device that administers epinephrine in the event of a severe allergic reaction. The Veta Smart Case was designed to help patients use it properly – which can be challenging during an allergic event, marking the location of the Epipen to find it faster, among other things. It also makes the treatment as digitally quantifiable as possible. Expiration, location and reason of use are all measured and tracked. This way the patient can keep a better record of their treatment history, and doctors can analyze and discuss the case easily.

4) ReSound brings natural hearing to the hearing impaired

ReSound is launching a hearing aid that mimics natural hearing almost perfectly. The Spatial Sense technology gives a natural sense of where sounds are coming from and helps form a detailed sound picture of the surroundings. The Binaural Directionality technology makes sure the wearer can still understand every word of the conversation. It is smartphone controlled. It can be connected to FaceTime, music apps and more, ensuring their sounds are played back perfectly. This is a truly digital hearing aid for the 21st century.

5) Quell’s FDA approved Wearable Pain Relief fights pain without drugs

Quell is a wearable technology with intensive nerve stimulation that is clinically proven to help manage chronic pain. It is FDA cleared for use during the day while active and at night while sleeping. Although the Medgadget reviewer didn’t experience significant pain relief, they praised the design and comfortability.

6) SleepPhones filter out noise to make sleeping easier

The SleepPhones headphones were designed to help the user fall asleep and stay asleep. It filters out sounds such as a partner snoring or other distractions. Having a great quality sleep is crucial for general well-being. Current technologies can help to optimize sleep but didn’t help at all if someone had trouble falling asleep. The technology will be a huge help for those suffering from insomnia.

7) GymWatch is a true personal trainer for your home

Gymwatch might be the first affordable sensor that guides users through all exercises they need for an athletic body. It can give feedback about pushups, strength workouts, cardio, exercise on machines, and more. The reason why it’s unique is that by measuring strength and acceleration it helps make exercises that do not involve spatial displacement (e.g. running) better. This is a great step forward in wearable technology for those of us looking to stay fit, strong and healthy. I’ve already ordered mine – stay tuned for an in-depth review!

This year’s CES was full of digital health innovation, bringing solutions for athletes, people dealing with allergy or patients suffering from chronic pain. I cannot wait to see what next year’s event will feature.

Should I Get Cryopreserved When I Die?

A serial entrepreneur and angel investor asked to have a coffee in order to talk about investments in future healthcare. He was about 80 and excited to show me how the contact list in his Blackberry worked. He asked tons of questions about where medical technology was heading, and I shared my ideas with him. He said he was a techie but curious about upcoming trends.

At the end of our discussion he asked if he could pose a personal question: should he get cryopreserved when he died? Talk about death can be disconcerting aside from the fact that I don’t provide advice on such a sensitive topic. He insisted, I relented, and he was not relieved.

Read more about whether cryopreservation is possible in the new book, My Health: Upgraded.

There Will Be No “Mars Generation” Without These Technologies

NASA is set to send astronauts to orbit Mars and return them safely by the mid 2030s. And a manned landing on the Red Planet will soon follow. However, this work will be in vain if health technology does not advance.

My parents were members of the Apollo generation. The amazing accomplishment of putting men on the Moon defined their era, stretching the boundaries of what humanity can achieve. But after the last Moon landing, no more exciting breakthroughs emerged. Global attention to space declined. Until now.

Visionaries like Elon Musk and Richard Branson are making spaceflight exciting again – turning our children into the Mars generation. Indeed, NASA is set to send astronauts to orbit Mars and return them safely by the mid 2030s. And a manned landing on the Red Planet will soon follow. However, this work will be in vain if health technology does not advance.

THE HAZARDS OF GETTING MAN TO MARS

Image credit: NASA

The trip to Mars takes around seven months, which is a only a little longer than the time astronauts spend on the International Space Station; however, counting their mission, orbit around Mars, landing, and return, the journey will take years.

Spaceflight has a serious effect on astronauts. Variations in temperature and radiation levels, motion sickness, losing bone and muscle mass despite doing exercises, disruption of vision and taste…all of these cause health issues, not to mention the psychological consequences of space travel.

Unfortunately, today, our health can only be effectively monitored by sensors that, at the present time, fill a room. Treating an injury such as a broken bone—a simple matter on Earth—requires medical manufacturing capabilities, capabilities that we don’t have on the Red Planet.

The technologies we need to solve the aforementioned issues exist, but they are in their infancy. Telemedicine is inaccurate and unregulated; genome sequencing is used in the rarest of cases and only by top medical institutions; 3D printing in medicine is the playground of citizen scientists, but has yet to advance into a viable and effective method of treatment.

The sad fact is, we don’t stand a chance of getting to Mars without a booming digital health industry. With that in mind, here are the top inventions and technologies we need if we ever hope to make a new home for humanity on Mars.

3D PRINTERS THAT CAN CREATE EVERYTHING AVAILABLE IN A DOCTOR’S OFFICE

Printing with a 3D printer at Makers Party: Via WikiMedia

As astronauts will be alone and cannot bring all the supplies for a lengthy stay on the Red Planet, they will need printers that can print out medical equipment, prosthetics, and drugs on demand. Bringing the ingredients for these, and printing out what is needed on site, makes more sense than bringing a few types of equipment and drugs which could only help under limited circumstances.

Astronauts could establish manufacturing by designing printers that can print out other printers. The whole idea of 3D printing is going to be essential to them. It has been shown that customized prosthetics can be printed out, some forms of medical equipment, and even drug used in epilepsy. The basic examples are here already or trends seem to be pointing into this direction. So the future is looking bright.

WEARABLE AND IMPLANTED BODY SENSORS

Credit: Professor Takao Someya

Forget smart clothes and devices that can measure your ECG or pulse with a smartphone. On a trip to Mars, every ounce of cargo matters. Without tiny sensors that can measure every important vital sign and health parameter, crew members will not be able to make medical decisions.

Today’s wearable trackers are big, get discharged quickly, and are hard to work with. Astronauts cannot rely on them. Digital tattoos and implanted microchips could do the job without the active participation of astronauts. These would measure every relevant parameter and let them know when there is something they should take care of. The Japanese Professor Someya has been developing such tattoos with his team; as well as the MC10 company.

FULL GENOMIC ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY ASTRONAUTS’ HEALTH RISKS

Since they won’t have access to proper healthcare for years, knowing what major conditions the Martian astronauts might face would be highly beneficial, indeed, even necessary. A full genome sequencing, assisted by microbiome tests and other lab markers, will let physicians partially predict what major diseases they will probably encounter in their lives and what they can do to try to avoid most of them. This includes what diet to choose based on the types of bacteria they live with and what lab markers to regularly re-check to catch a disease before it would develop.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THAT CAN DRAW CONCLUSIONS FROM LIVE HEALTH DATA

IBM’s Watson computer, Yorktown Heights, NY. Via: WikiMedia

No matter how sophisticated sensors are, measurements will not help with day-to-day issues unless there are smart algorithms that can make suggestions. Astronauts will have no constant contact with Earth, and they cannot have all the skills of an experienced physician, researcher, and data analyst.

Algorithms will do this job for them. This will help them get the most out of each day to exploit the theoretical limits of efficiency.

TELEMEDICAL SOLUTIONS THAT ALLOW REMOTE CARE

Image credit: ITouch

Even though the distance is big between physicians here and the crew on Mars, high quality communication with specialized caregivers on Earth will be an essential part of their care. As was mentioned, the distance and delay in communication will make it tricky, but from time to time, communication with a real doctor will be absolutely necessary.

While the future of smart algorithms used in healthcare is bright, human supervision will still be a crucial part of making sure they are on the right track. InTouch Health is a good example.

THIN EXOSKELETONS TO AUGMENT HUMAN STRENGTH AND POWER

Fortis exoskeleton. Image credit: FORTIS

Lifting huge weights and working tirelessly for long hours will be must-have features on Mars, as astronauts will need to build a base camp. As exoskeletons get thinner and more comfortable, the crew on Mars will use them as frequently as the first astronauts used screwdrivers. Exoskeletons today can already let paralyzed people walk again; let soldiers not get tired of walking for hours or even run faster and jump higher. As long spaceflights weaken their muscles no matter how much they try to exercise in zero gravity, exoskeletons could supply them with the lost strength.

ENGINEERING IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Astronauts will need to be able to partially engineer life. By life, I mean bacteria, yeast, and even their own immune system if needed. The new genome editing method, CRISPR, could play a major role in this. Systems involving engineering bacteria to produce hormones, antibiotics, or other materials would allow them to use nature as a manufacturing device, even to filter water or create the desired atmosphere. Community labs currently available in California and the iGem competitions have demonstrated in what a wide range of situations bioengineering can offer solutions.

SURGICAL ROBOTS THAT CAN BE OPERATED FROM A DISTANCE

Image credit: Weyland

There will be cases, almost inevitably, when astronauts will need to undergo surgery. Current surgical robots that perform big operations are controlled by surgeons through a control panel. The movie Prometheus featured a surgical robot capsule that can perform the whole operation on its own. The Mars generation will require an invention somewhere in between. Surgeons on Earth could pre-plan every step, and the robot could perform those steps while being supervised with the time delay digitally.

I truly believe that humans are discoverers – and the next great enterprise is discovering the cosmos, starting with Mars. At first, the task will fall on a few brave people, and we have to make sure we can keep them safe, healthy, and functioning in an environment that is hostile to human life.

We need to upgrade their health with advancements in digital health to make this possible. Luckily, these breakthrough technologies are all within our reach.

Read more about health technologies we will need to reach Mars and how to start upgrading your own health in my new book, My Health: Upgraded,

The future of the FDA and drug regulations

The system of drug regulation is obsolete. To keep patients around the world safe, authorities like the FDA must step up and deal with disruptive trends – without suffocating innovation.

Innovation in medicine is getting faster while the processes the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses are sometimes decades old. The Patient Engagement Advisory Committee, launched in September 2015, was a great step forward. But regulators are unprepared for some big changes on the horizon.

Here are the top five issues that I believe will shape the future of the regulatory environment.

1) Patients taking action

If regulations don’t support the trends and technologies that make lives better, patients will take action themselves. This trend is already apparent, fueled by disruptive technologies like crowdsourcing. There is a chance that patients (or clusters of patient groups) might start acquiring/launching biotech companies to develop drugs and conduct clinical trials themselves without waiting for a regulatory agency to pave the way for them.

2) The ‘Uberification’ of healthcare

Uber has caused protests around the world by disrupting the taxi industry through making transportation available at lower prices. The company’s success and price advantage was made possible in no small part through avoiding regulations. If on-demand care delivery services gain popularity in the same way, before proper regulations are put in place, the resulting chaos will threaten patients’ health and caregivers’ livelihoods.

The FDA will have to be at its best to prevent this. And it must hurry up – The Heal app and Go2Nurse in Chicago have already started this disruption around how healthcare is delivered.

3) Wearables

The wearable health tracker revolution is changing the healthcare status quo, as medical information is now available outside the ivory tower of medicine which previously kept this information solely in the hands of physicians.

There might soon be ‘insideables’ – namely, devices implanted into the body or just under the skin. There are already people who have had RFID chips implanted to enable them to open up a laptop, a smartphone or even the garage door. Another trend is that of ‘digestibles’ – pills or tiny gadgets that can be swallowed to track digestion and the absorption of drugs.

So far, the FDA has not been keen on regulating the wearable market heavily. But when such disruptive technologies hit the market, it will be years behind.

4) Direct-to-consumer genomic services

When the FDA shot down all direct-to-consumer (DTC) services from the likes of 23andMe and Navigenics, there was a belief that it would soon provide a regulatory framework for such services. But, two years on, these companies function on thin ice.

While the freedom to access information about our health is crucial, regulatory agencies must make sure that the data patients receive is accurate and is discussed with a genetic counselor or physician. Otherwise, patients might interpret results wrongly. In five-to-10 years, genome sequencing will become accessible to almost everyone, and won’t be limited to big companies with serious capital. When that time comes, the FDA will face a serious scenario in which patients access the information in their DNA and analyse it at home with services like IBM Watson. They won’t need to involve any healthcare professional. But lifestyle and medical decisions based on such information will still require expertise that only trained physicians bring.

5) Real-time data gathered by insurance companies

Insurance companies such as Oscar Health have started issuing wearables to their customers, and offering incentives and rewards (like an Amazon gift card) if the customers agree to share their data obtained from health trackers. This motivates the patient to live a healthier life and doesn’t require strict regulation. But current wearable technology only provides harmless information about the wearer’s health, like steps taken or heart rate.

What will happen when every health parameter and vital sign can be constantly monitored using next-generation wearables, like digital tattoos? It’s great seeing companies backing preventive medicine, but keeping patients’ information private is crucial.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is a step in the right direction. The US law makes sure patients do not share genetic test results with their employers and insurance companies, as that could be used to personalize their insurance rates, punishing them, for example, for inherent genetic defects that they were born with.

But similar regulation that encompasses any health parameter will be much harder.

The progress of technology cannot be stopped. Similarly, we all want healthcare to be safe, affordable and efficient. However, to regulate these disruptive trends without stifling innovation, the FDA must have the clearest vision and the best knowledge about healthcare trends.

The biggest challenge today is that the regulators are not at the forefront of innovation and they cannot hope to anticipate and regulate changes that they don’t yet understand.

I recently published this article on Pharmaphorum.com.

Old vs. New Medical Technology On One Picture

A brilliant image was released in a new article, Tenuous Tether, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here is the short abstract:

Though it introduced a bit more distance than immediate auscultation, the stethoscope kept the physician tethered to the patient. Today, however, the tether is fraying. How can we use technology to bring physicians closer to patients rather than making them more remote?

On the left:  Laennac at a Patient’s Bedside, by Théobald Chartran, 1816. On the right: The Authors Demonstrating Modern Electronic Auscultation, 2015.

 

Top 10 Medical Technologies of 2016

Every year, I publish my predictions for the coming year. As the Medical Futurist, I’m expected to come up with bright visions and I’m happy to rise to the challenge. Last year my predictions included a digital tattoo, portable diagnostic devices thanks to the XPrize Challenge, IBM Watson’s rise to prominence in analyzing big health data, and brain computer interfaces such as Muse or Thync becoming available to the general public. These visions have since become reality.

It’s time to list the 10 major breakthroughs and trends that will dominate healthcare and medicine in 2016.

1) Virtual Reality

Once The New York Times gave out Google Cardboards with its newspapers, it was clear virtual reality was going mainstream. But now that Facebook’s Oculus Rift just became available for pre-order, virtual reality is going to become a booming industry. With really sophisticated devices on the market, it might have its biggest year ever in 2016. It will be used to let medical students gain realistic experience in examining patients or to let patients see what would happen to them the next day at the hospital for stress release.

 

2) Augmented Reality

A Novartis chief announced that the digital contact lens patented by Google would become available in 2016. As it will measure blood glucose from tears, it is supposed to change diabetes treatment and management. Moreover, Hololens from Microsoft also comes out in 2016 which will have a huge impact on fields from medical education to architecture and engineering. It could help medical students do dissections for many hours a day from any angles without the formaldehyde smell.

3) Fibretronics

2015 was not the year of smartclothes no matter how much we anticipated it. Even the ones with the biggest market potentials like HexoSkin were only traditional shirts with built-in devices in their pockets. But fibretronics are clothing materials with microchips implanted into them. They can react to body temperature or the mood of the wearer, among others. Google has started collaborating with Levi’s to create true fibretronic materials, which could be used to interact with technology through our clothes in novel ways. Imagine this in the OR. As the first promising collaborations in this area came out in 2015, expect to see the first tangible results in 2016!

4) Smart Algorithms Analyzing Wearable Data

2015 was the year of wearable health trackers. A swarm of devices became available, Amazon launched its Wearable Marketplace and millions of activity trackers were sold. But gaining actionable insights from the constant stream of wearable data is not easy. We need clever algorithms and apps that merge data from several devices and apps, and help us draw meaningful conclusions. It would help lay people put more emphasis on prevention and have a healthier lifestyle. I had experience with Exist.io, one of the earliest attempts, but it still needs to go a long way.

5) Near-Artificial Intelligence in Radiology

IBM’s Watson supercomputer has been used in oncology to assist medical decision-making. It proved the clear benefits of such a system by making diagnoses and treatment cheaper and more efficient. IBM’s Medical Sieve project aims to diagnose most lesions with a smart software, leaving room for radiologists to focus on the most important cases instead of checking hundreds of images every day.

6) Food Scanners

Food scanners like Scio and Tellspec have been in the spotlight since 2014, but as early developer prototypes have already been mailed to their first users in 2015, 2016 could be the year they become generally available. This would enable anyone to find out what’s really on their plates, providing clear benefits not just to people looking to gain weight or eat healthier food, but people with dangerous allergies as well.  

7) Humanoid Robots

One of the most promising companies developing robots is Boston Dynamics, acquired by Google in 2013. Since then, they only released teaser videos about animal-like robots and Petman, the humanoid robot. Many technologies they are working on seem to be at a stage where they are ready to become actual products, the first signs of which we’ll see in 2016.

8) 3D Bioprinting

Organovo has been in the focus because of 3D printing biomaterials for years. They announced successfully bioprinted liver tissues in 2014 and they seemed to be 4-6 years away from printing liver parts for transplantation. But first, these bioprinted livers could be finally used in the pharmaceutical industry to replace animal models when analyzing the toxicity of new drugs. If it goes through in 2016, I feel printing actual liver tissue for transplantation could become a commercial service within the next decade.

9) Internet of Health Things At Home

Last year, I released a concept art of a bathroom of the future. All the elements in that image from the smart toothbrush to the digital mirror were partially available in 2015. But an array of sensors will reach the general public in 2016 making IoT a reality in our homes. The long-term goal is to make these devices communicate and learn from each other. This way we would not have to analyze the data of the devices ourselves, but the device manufacturers could merge their findings and share a digestible report with us when there is something to take care of.

10) Theranos – Thumbs Up Or Down

The end of 2015 saw Theranos embroiled in a scandal. The company claims to perform blood tests from one drop of blood in a transparently priced way. Concerns were raised by the Wall Street Journal about the validity of their claims, and we are waiting for Theranos to reveal the details of their technology.

Besides these, the new Verily Life Sciences branch of Alphabet and the gene editing method CRISPR might have a big hit in 2016. We will see.

These technologies and trends will create value and have an impact on our lives and the practice of medicine in 2016. To keep an eye on them, subscribe to my newsletter!

Why I Will Keep On Playing Games On Lumosity.com

Lumosity is a collection of brain training games you can play on any device. The company has claimed these games enhance brain functions, pointing to findings in neuroscience and scientific studies to back up its claims. Now the US Federal Trade Commission made them pay $2 million in refunds to settle federal charges that Lumosity deceived customers about the cognitive and health benefits of its apps and online products. In details:

Regulators accused San Francisco-based Lumos Labs of making unfounded claims about what its games could do to delay the symptoms of and protect against conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and to reduce cognitive impairment from stroke and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

 

 

I’ve played games 2364 times on Lumosity since July, 2013. I rarely miss a day and it has turned out to be a great method for improving some of my cognitive skills. I think false claims must be punished. But this case perfectly demonstrates what misconceptions people have about new health technologies. Most people expect technologies and digital services to transform their lives miraculously.

When starting to use a new tool or service, many expect it to lead to guaranteed lifestyle changes. After quantifying my health for over a decade, I’m convinced it doesn’t work like that. Each of us has to put in the effort to change ingrained habits and make use of data and possibilities that these tools grant us. There’s no “easy way” to upgrade your health, even with technology.

After playing Lumosity for years, I’ve gained two major benefits from it:

• I love playing these games – data show my stress levels go way down after I’ve played my daily dose.
• The methods of thought the games force me to master are useful when solving complicated problems in other parts of my life.

I’m convinced my reflexes, attention span, memory and mental flexibility have become better purely because I have been consistently playing those games. A few concrete examples:

• Speed Pack and River Ranger taught me how to be perfectly efficient at doing a task. While I’m in meetings, I try to make them as useful as possible. I do that by really focusing on what’s ahead of me. I almost always manage to get the most out of my meetings.
• Train of Thought still teaches me how to pay attention to several things at once. When I sit down to focus on replying to many e-mails, I need to gather information, read the messages, write the replies in a way that I don’t spend hours there. This game was designed to help me with that.
• Disillusion provided me with methods to look at the same thing from two angles without making a mistake. My job as the Medical Futurist involves coming up with visions based on recent findings and new technologies. These games helped me how to have a fresh look at the same thing to illuminate the reasoning behind them.

Lumosity will not go down with this decision. Hopefully they learned an important lesson about making health claims without solid data to back them up. It endangers the very real value they CAN provide to some of us.

I will definitely keep playing, and recommend you start improving your health, lifestyle and skills as well. To improve cognitive skills, I still believe Lumosity is a good choice. I have no scientific studies to back this up, only my 2 years+ of positive experience.