Healthcare is a rare bird. We can neither disregard it nor make it cheap, simple, and safe (fernandez et al., 2012). In fact, we globally spend more than 10% of the GDP in healthcare and about $1,000 per capita every year (world health organization, 2018).Cognitive aspects of learning but this is not the whole story: approved drugs halve every 9 years (i.E., eroom’s law); population aged over 60 years is expected to grow by 56% over the next ten years (TM capital, 2017); the workforce to meet patients demand is declining; and the need of having a higher quality of care and more control and transparency over individual healthcare are affecting the sector.Cognitive aspects of learning

But there is another major trend that is suggesting that do-it-yourself medicine may be a substantial part of the future healthcare landscape.Cognitive aspects of learning the convergence of artificial intelligence, cheap iot devices, and blockchain is already improving both preventive and post-treatment healthcare in such a way that patients are not required to leave their houses to look for treatments.Cognitive aspects of learning it is not hard to then imagine our homes as the hospitals of the future.

It is easier to estimate the size of an opportunity when trying to win or expanding a market, but creating new ones is way more complicated and this is the case for biohacking.Cognitive aspects of learning this is in part a wellness business ($3.7 trillion according to bosshart et al., 2018) where premium services are easier to charge (“ wellness tourist” spends over 60% more than an “ average international traveler”).Cognitive aspects of learning it is in part related to the anti-aging sector, a $42.5 billion opportunity that will grow up to $55 billion by 2023 according to orbis. But it is also a data business (a $14 billion), a smart drug business ( $4 billion), and a synthetic biology one ( $3 billion).Cognitive aspects of learning

Furthermore, there are two other dynamics emerging which should be considered: first, goldman et al. (2013) proved that if the longevity industry actually increases life expectancy of about two years (a fair estimate of its effect), the economic benefit would amount to $7.1 trillion over the next 50 years (only partially due to reduced costs).Cognitive aspects of learning

Technically speaking, the major problems concern the scientific validity of certain DIY practices, as well as the lack of a shared general curated dataset.Cognitive aspects of learning artificial intelligence can help on the first aspect (especially because most of the biohacking processes can be simulated and A/B tested) while blockchain can be useful to address the second point, creating master patient indices and a single longitudinal dataset of patient records.Cognitive aspects of learning

From a commercial point of view instead, most of the R&D requires a huge initial capital injection, which is historically a barrier that is splitting the sector in two (i.E., biotech vs pharma).Cognitive aspects of learning furthermore, both the hardware and software development require talent that is usually not easily accessible to the healthcare industry, and the continuous fight with the regulators make the whole picture even more complex.Cognitive aspects of learning

Some of those challenges suggest why tech giants may be uniquely positioned to take on this industry. They own tons of data, and not only healthcare one, but information that may exponentially complement the profile of a person.Cognitive aspects of learning they have talent, and many of them know how to deal with hardware R&D. They have access to health data coming from non-health products. They have a lot of money, but coming from innovative revenue streams that therefore create the right incentive to pursue longer-term goals and to change the traditional healthcare research paradigm.Cognitive aspects of learning they already have an ecosystem of other devices, software, and services they offer, which makes the deployment incredibly easier.

The analytics side is getting easier to be managed because of the new wave of artificial intelligence technologies.Cognitive aspects of learning even though the idea of “ citizen data scientists” (people with some sort of background that makes them able to run their own analysis) is spreading around, most of laypersons will need help figuring out what to track, what to do with their own data, and how to implement the changes and measure the effects (and this is what AI is here for).Cognitive aspects of learning

Finally, the hardware side is likely the hardest to deal with. Devices like the fitbit, apple watch or the oura ring are available to a premium consumer class, but they are far to be either perfect or cheap.Cognitive aspects of learning the benefits of specialized hardware are clearly that automatically gathers data for you, and possibly provides real-time recommendations on the edge.Cognitive aspects of learning

Even if today biohacking offer mainly includes self-help apps, the market and possibilities are wider. It can span indeed from genomics (e.G., 23andme, color, day two, promethease, foundmyfitness genetics, the ODIN), to mental health ( ginger, tao connect, touchkin); from synthetic biology (e.G., ubiome, viome, ginkgo bioworks) to neuroengineering and brain-machine interfaces (e.G., neuralink, kernel, paradromics, neurable, brainco, senselabs, muse); from biomarkers tracking (e.G., chronometer, one drop, rise, kurbo, cardiogram, physiq, thriva) to supplements products and analytics (e.G., examine, labdoor, sun genomics, care/of, nutrigene, multiply labs); from food ( impossible foods, notco, beyond meat) to anti-aging ( calico labs, unity biotechnology, life biosciences).Cognitive aspects of learning

What these players are introducing, in addition to pure product innovation, is new business models. We can already notice the use of traditional retainer fee models (e.G., per member per month; through licensing; per transaction), but also emerging pay-as-you-live models that reward healthier lifestyle or longevity-as-a-service marketplaces.Cognitive aspects of learning

Barbi et al. (2018) recently showed that humans are nowhere near their maximum lifespan, if such a limit exists at all. This implies that biohacking is a huge market with endless opportunities for players that can today invest in analytics and hardware capabilities, support hyperconnectivity, foster disintermediation, and facilitate human-tech entanglement.Cognitive aspects of learning

In order to get there, those pioneers have to be able to deal with the ethical implications of this discipline, as well as the deriving cybersecurity challenges and privacy issues.Cognitive aspects of learning they also have to reconceive the healthcare paradigm from reactive to proactive and get rid of traditional data dashboard in favor of an actionable automated analytical approach.Cognitive aspects of learning