I finally broke down and bought a GPS computer for my bike to track my rides and improve performance. I love it and the ability to track/share my rides on Strava. So then naturally, I wanted the same capabilties for my runs — but I chose the Nike GPS sportwatch instead of a Garmin one because of better usability. But of course the Nike data can only be uploaded with the Nikeplus website and at least from what I can figure out — one can’t export the file elsewhere (either from the device or the website). And neither set of devices are HealthVault enabled….which means I can’t easily utilize the results of my training with my HealthVault apps, like www.heart360.org or www.mayoclinichealthmanager.com.
I get I’m a bit of a gear/gadget head. But personal health devices work — they motivate and engage consumers. And it is clear there will be a lot more of them coming for fitness, for specific disease conditions and for lifestyle purposes. For them to really have an impact, they must liberate their data and make it available to other applications to use and share. As a user, I don’t want to have a silo’ed relationship with each type of device I use. I want them to contribute to a wholistic view of my health and for me to be able to decide how to leverage and share the data.
Come on device manufacturers and consumer products companies — continue innovating with cool new products and apps — but please liberate MY data!
NEUPERT ON HEALTH 