Wearable devices with a wide range of sensors have contributed to the rise of
the Quantified Self movement, where individuals log everything ranging from the
number of steps they have taken, to their heart rate, to their sleeping
patterns. Sensors do not, however, typically sense the social and ambient
environment of the users, such as general life style attributes or information
about their social network. This means that the users themselves, and the
medical practitioners, privy to the wearable sensor data, only have a narrow
view of the individual, limited mainly to certain aspects of their physical
condition.
In this paper we describe a number of use cases for how social media can be
used to complement the check-up data and those from sensors to gain a more
holistic view on individuals' health, a perspective we call the 360 Quantified
Self. Health-related information can be obtained from sources as diverse as
food photo sharing, location check-ins, or profile pictures. Additionally,
information from a person's ego network can shed light on the social dimension
of wellbeing which is widely acknowledged to be of utmost importance, even
though they are currently rarely used for medical diagnosis. We articulate a
long-term vision describing the desirable list of technical advances and
variety of data to achieve an integrated system encompassing Electronic Health
Records (EHR), data from wearable devices, alongside information derived from
social media data.Comment: QCRI Technical Repor
