SensUs visits:
Puls 2018

The SensUs Organization hosted interactive discussions at Puls, a biannual event of the Dutch Heart Foundation where patients, professionals and the industry meet to discuss progress in the field of cardiovascular research.

Puls consists of a range of activities such as lectures, workshops and so called interactive points. On Thursday the 8th of February, the SensUs Organization hosted one of the interactive points in order to engage visitors and ourselves in a discussion about the ethical aspects that come with a biosensor.

The main question was: ‘How do we deal with the data measured by biosensors?’  What to do with the data that is becoming available with novel devices? Do we want to know everything that is ongoing in our bodies? Who has access to what information? And when is someone or something to be trusted? Some participants stated that they do not want to know all that is going on in their bodies. Another remarkable comment was that relying completely on sensors could even be dangerous, as such measurements could potentially miss a harmful condition. Therefore, it remains very important to take one’s own natural body signals seriously.

We noticed that many organizations are working on mobile applications to either support a healthy lifestyle or to track body measurements, like heart rate and daily steps. Instead of remedying cardiovascular disease, they often focus on prevention. In the future, biosensors can also become a source of data to realize that prospective.