Apps That Need To Exist: PreDoctor

Since Google knows pretty much everything about us, I can’t wait for it to apply what it’s learned from our checkins and sleeping hours and steptrackers to answer our medical googling. “Google,” I might ask it, “do I have that horrible flu that I recently read about people dying from? Or did I pick up some dread disease eating streetcart food in Beijing?”

And Google would remind me that it saw me watching Downton Abbey at 4 AM, and then check in at work at 9AM, via a tweet about a breakfast donut, so if I’m not feeling my best, I’m probably suffering from direct consequences of my actions, and not from a rare and terrible disease.

“Yeah, thanks, Dr. Google. That’s probably right.”

“Would you like to try GoogleLabs’ beta version of PreDoctor? Our new service will use predictive patterns, and warn you before you engage in risky and destructive behavior.”

“I’m a writer and programming teacher, Dr. Google, I don’t exactly encounter a lot of health-related risks.”

“In your case, after the third unusually late clockout from work*, you’ll be on yellow alert. With the addition of a second risk factor, like excessive Kindle rereads of Harry Potter, a missed checkin at yoga, or increased impulse shopping, you’ll be on red alert, until you have checked in at a fitness location or Instagrammed a healthy meal.”

Anyway, maybe this isn’t so much of a silly app that needs to exist, more something that’s definitely coming. What would your red alert look like?

*I automated my phone to clock in and out at work because otherwise I would forget.

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2 Responses to Apps That Need To Exist: PreDoctor

  1. Cindy says:

    Mine would go red every day because I am online until 10 or so and my alarm goes off at 5:30. Also, I didn’t know that it was possible to program your phone to clock you in and out of work lol.

    • Meg Stivison says:

      Well, if you are really bad at remembering to punch in and out, you can automate a GCalendar checkin whenever you enter or exit a location, and then you have a calendar of your worked hours! I used IFTTT.com to set it up, so helpful for absent-minded people like me.

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