Author: Ernesto Ramirez

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Introducing iMeRG: The Individual Metabolic Research Group

February 19, 2015

Here at QS Labs we take great pride in supporting a worldwide network of meetup groups. From Bucharest to the Bay Area, we have over 100 groups meeting to discuss self-tracking, share experiences, and learn from each other. We wanted to highlight a new group, based in southern Oregon, that is using self-tracking to expand…

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Do It Yourself Diabetes

February 17, 2015

Dana Lewis and Scott Leibrand are the creators of the amazing “Do-It-Yourself-Pancreas-System,” also known by #DIYPS. We had a few question for them.

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Quantified Homescreens

February 16, 2015

Betaworks recently announced that they had collected data from over 40,000 users who shared their iPhone homescreens through their apptly named #homescreen app. As they stated in their announcement, the apps people keep on their homescreen are often the apps they use the most. Being a data-minded individual I thought, “I wonder what kind of…

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Fitbit vs. Moves: An Exploration of Phone and Wearable Data

February 12, 2015

Like many people paying attention to the press around Quantified Self, self-tracking, and wearable technology I was intrigued by the many articles that focused on a newly published research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The letter, Accuracy of Smartphone Applications and Wearable Devices for Tracking Physical Activity Data, authored by Meredith A. Case et al.,…

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QS Access: Personal Data Freedom

February 11, 2015

We are happy to welcome this guest post by Madeleine Ball. Madeleine is the Senior Research Scientist at PersonalGenomes.org, co-founder of the upcoming Open Humans project, and the Director of Research at the Harvard Personal Genome Project. She can be found online @madprime. The digital trails we create are becoming thick and personal. Increasingly, people choose to collect meaningful data…

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Richard Sprague: Fish Oil Makes me Smarter

February 10, 2015

Richard Sprague is interested in understanding peak performance. Inspired by self-experimenter, Seth Roberts, Richard decided to test if consuming fish oil affected his response time. In this talk, Richard explores his data and discusses what he found out when he ran his analysis.

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Tidings: QS Ann Arbor Meetup Recap

February 5, 2015

Today’s post comes to us from PF Anderson, Emerging Technologies Informationist for the Health Sciences, University of Michigan and a member of the QS Ann Arbor meetup group. It first appeared on her excellent Emerging Technologies Librarian blog and we’re happy to republish it here. Last week, I felt really lucky that I was able to make…

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My Device, My Body, My Data

February 4, 2015

In 2007, after collapsing while rushing to board a train, Hugo Campos was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) was implanted in his chest to track and regulate his heart rhythm. To his great surprise, he discovered that it was very difficult to gain access to the data being generated inside his…

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QS Access: Backing up HealthKit Data

February 3, 2015

As you may know, we’re very interested in how HealthKit is shaping and extending the reach of personal self-tracking data. Last week, during Apple’s quarterly earnings call, Tim Cook mentioned that “There’s also been incredible interest in HealthKit, with over 600 developers now integrating it into their apps.” (emphasis mine). This morning, we were alerted…

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Beth Martin: Healing & Change Through Quantification

February 2, 2015

In 2013 Beth Martin was dealing with a failing startup, starting a new venture and working so much she moved her office into her bedroom to limit the time between waking and starting work. After a series of additional changes led her to near breakdown she decided to take six months off to rewrite her…

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QS Access: Precision, Patients, and Participation

January 30, 2015

This morning President Barack Obama announced a new Precision Medicine Initiative, a key $215 million piece of the proposed 2016 budget. Much has been written since last week’s State of the Union, when this initiative was first mentioned by President Obama. In brief, the initiative is an investment in new programs and funding initiatives at…

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Counting Money

January 29, 2015

Yesterday was the first day in a month that I handled cash. For weeks everything I’ve purchased and paid for has been handled by digital means. Debit cards, direct debits and deposits, internet purchases – it’s all 1’s and 0’s flowing through the tubes, and it’s makes my life very easy. However, now that the…

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QS Access: Data Donation Part 1

January 27, 2015

New sensors are peeking into previously invisible or hard to understand human behaviors and information. This has led to many researchers and organizations developing an interest in exploring and learning from the increasing amount of personal self-tracking data being produced by self-trackers. Even though individuals are producing more and more personal data that could possibly…

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Paul LaFontaine: Heart Rate Variability and Flow

January 26, 2015

Paul LaFontaine is on an incredible journey to understand himself, his stress, and how he works through consistent examination of his heart rate variability (HRV). We’ve featured a few of his talks here on the Quantified Self website, and we were happy to have him present at a Bay Area QS meetup this past December….

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QS Access: Self-Report & Quantified Self in Health Research

January 23, 2015

As part of our new Access channel we’re going to highlight interesting stories, ideas, and research related to self-tracking data and data access issues and the role they take in personal and public health. We recently found this expert report, published in the International Journal of Obesity, that tackles issues with the data researchers rely on for…