Opinion | AI can work to improve Hongkongers’ health, but only with a human touch

The effectiveness of today’s health apps underscores the limits of using technology alone to modify human behaviour. AI researchers must work with health professionals and others to tailor strategies

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By 2030, one in every four Hongkongers is expected to be aged 65 or over. As the elderly are more susceptible to chronic diseases, one immediate question is: how can the public health system keep up with the change? Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:00pm, 14 Apr 2019Updated: 5:39pm, 14 Apr 2019

Hong Kong people’s life expectancy has gradually increased. By 2030, one in every four Hongkongers is expected to be aged 65 or over. As the elderly are more susceptible to chronic diseases, one immediate question is how the public health system, which is already suffering from space and manpower shortages, can keep up with the change.

In view of this, the city needs more and better health promotion schemes to combat the rise of chronic diseases. Can AI play a part?

Many factors affect health, including diet, exercise, emotions, sleep pattern, genes and the environment. In the case of chronic diseases, which tend to develop over many years, medical evidence shows that a healthy lifestyle is important. Furthermore, rather than resort to medication, lifestyle modification has been shown to be effective in curing some diseases at the early stages of development.

But our busy working life, high study pressures and various distractions make lifestyle management a challenge in Hong Kong. For example, how many Hongkongers actually pay attention to the food pyramid recommended by the Centre of Health Protection? Even if we do, how should we measure and assess whether our food consumption meets the recommendations?

Our busy lifestyle in Hong Kong makes eating healthily a challenge. For many, this means a diet that lacks sufficient fruit and vegetables. Photo: Shutterstock

Why not let artificial intelligence do it for us? If we take a photo of our meals every day on our smartphone, a simple app that maps the food to nutritional facts can tell us how far we are from meeting the recommended food intake. If we do this for months and years, AI, using a simple maths equation, can even calculate an individual health index in terms of food consumption.