You don't need personalized health

Health is not your device. It's your discipline.

Photo by Max Chen

Introduction

Here’s a contrarian take on healthcare.

Personalized health is biological over-engineering, and digital health is technology lust.

More than 90% of people don’t need personalized health—they need discipline to eat better and move more.

Even in developing countries, digital health often serves as a gateway to overburdened healthcare systems, providing doctors with more precise data they don’t have time to process.

With 8 minutes per patient, how much can we really expect by adding more complexity?

How AI Will Change Healthcare

This morning, I’m doing my daily Qigong practice at the park across from the lake.

The sun rises into my eyes, so I shift until it’s hidden by a tree. The regular walkers and runners pass by, including a woman with a baby in a running stroller.

We live in a time of over-engineering. 

Personalized health is biological over-engineering. We’ve mapped genomes and can offer precision treatments, but most of us don’t need that. What we need is simpler: the will to eat better and move more. Yet, we chase complexity, perhaps to avoid the uncomfortable truth that health requires uncomfortable sacrifices.

Digital health is no different. It’s technology lust, packaged in mobile apps and Apple watches, promising insights and data. But to what end? Doctors are swamped, and digital health is often an excuse, not a solution.

Three Years Ago

I visited Prof. Nir Giladi, a world-class neurologist in Tel Aviv. I was having issues with double-clicks on my MacBook. After a thorough neurological workup, he diagnosed me with a mild case of essential tremor.

He said, “Don’t take medicine. Don’t see doctors. Exercise at least six hours a week, cut out espresso, and drink a bit of alcohol—it seems to help.”

I laughed, asking, “Does that include single malt?”

“Single malt is good,” he smiled.

So I took his advice. No doctors. No pills. I have a shot of single malt once a week with friends on Shabbat, and it’s become a social ritual.

I also started practicing Qigong daily—systematically learning the exercises in a class. Three years later, the tremor is nearly gone. No medicine, no doctors. Just movement and discipline. Qigong is a way of life.

Health: An Uncomfortable Sacrifice

We often treat health like rocket science to excuse inaction. We develop digital health apps as "get out of jail free" cards for poor lifestyle choices. We take medicine for quick fixes.

Can AI Change Us?

AI is already changing industries at a superhuman scale. Look at algorithmic trading—10,000 times faster than human traders, operating across entire markets. What happens when scale brings a change in substance?

In healthcare, AI could drive two major changes: policy-making and enforcement.

AI Policy-Making

The Golden Rule: He who has the gold, writes the rules.

Today, healthcare providers write the rules and maintain the bureaucracy, keeping the system slow and profitable for the executives who run the system. Wesern public health policies sustain trillion dollar industries that thrive on people being sick.

In the future, AI could write healthcare policies with patients in mind, eliminating HCP bureaucracy and focusing on simple, effective actions.

Imagine policy-making that’s transparent, low-cost, and focused on encouraging healthier behaviors—policies crafted without bias or vested interests by an AI.

AI Enforcement

AI  already helps enforce healthy habits—through coaching apps and smartwatches that remind us to move more and eat better. With over a billion connected devices generating 16 times more patient data than electronic health records, personal health tech is growing faster than the PC industry.

This is  data at scale.   Orders of magnitude greater than EHR systems.

AI’s real power lies in scale. 

An AI can nudge us, reminding us to take the stairs or choose the salad. At scale, AI could shift power away from healthcare providers and into the hands of patients, keeping us accountable without overwhelming us.

AI + Human: A Partnership in Health

Like Qigong has become part of my life, AI can become part of ours. An AI companion fine-tuned to our habits could guide us toward better choices, not by dictating our lives but by subtly nudging us toward healthier behaviors.

It’s not about controlling rare genetic conditions with advanced technology—it’s about addressing the widespread issues of poor diet and inactivity. Fast food isn’t causing rare diseases, but it’s contributing to massive public health challenges.

Health is your discipline not your device

Walking back from the park, I see people glued to their phones. Social media—just another distraction.

Your health is not in your device, your health is in your discipline

We need to strip away the unnecessary layers and return to basics. Eat well. Move often. Let AI assist, but not dominate. Use it to simplify, not complicate or life.

We have the tools to make real change. But AI will only help us if we use it to enhance our humanity, not replace it. Health isn't rocket science—it’s about uncomfortable sacrifices that lead to real results.

No AI, no doctor, no personalized plan can do the work for us. We have to take the steps ourselves. One foot in front of the other. One meal at a time. That's how we move forward.

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Conclusion

We can’t rely on software or biotech to solve everything. It’s up to us to make the hard choices and take the right actions. AI will help us sustain a discipline of simple, consistent effort.

Just like the sun rises every day.