In an attempt to understand the scientific capabilities of my concept for the physical representation of a microbiome, I constructed an unstructured interview with a biomedical expert and ran my idea past her. I established that through ingesting something I could tract the gut health which, theoretically could indicate other aspects of health.
ROSE: Hey Amapreet, thanks for chatting with me, I wanted to gain some insight from an expert as I’m developing a concept. I’m basically creating a speculative product based in the future and want to create something which represents the users physical health. So I want to essentially have a bio sensor which could be ingested and would then be able to monitor the persons general health and the information that bio sensor gathers would then be reflected in real time on my product (it’s just conceptual so doesn’t need to be too exact but I need to develop it a bit). I’ve been looking into microbiomes, are they about gut health only?
AMAPREET: So there is something called capsule endoscopy and it is something that we use in identifying mini or micro beeds that happen in the gut, often it’s just patients that have recurrent drops in the red cell count. So we use this technology to actually look at what’s going on to see if there is a cause for the bleeding or for any evidence that bleeding occurred. In terms of actually looking at users physical health, what specifically would you want to look into?
ROSE: Yes I think being specific will really help in terms of product development but as health is so varied and subject to different organ systems I am attempting to identify what would be an overall indictor, so having a product that specifically looks at digestive health could be a future concept that may be more appropriate.
AMAPREET: For example, our tech is always developing so having a product that looks at things on a microscopic level could potentially evaluate a guts reaction to certain food types and therefore determine an appropriate diet for that person in question
ROSE: My initial idea came from a comment that I read in a journal about the future of beauty that representation of physical health will become equated with beauty, so for example lung capacity will become a visual thing and could be how beauty is measured in the future. I wanted to create a product that could measure general health or something which is an indicator of it.
AMAPREET: So a lot of things are image-based but that would involve computer tomography scanners, So for example if you wanted to look at brain or lungs they would have to be a route of passage so that this pill or something would be able to reach that area. But if we are talking about a pill that we eat then strictly it would only be Gastro intestinal.
ROSE: So if the bio sensor was swallowed, would that just measure intestinal health?
AMAPREET: There are studies which claim that improving gut health could effect things like skin and anti ageing. Scientifically it’s plausible for it to help with gut health and when your gut health is good generally you have better skin
ROSE: So the only thing it could measure would be intestinal health really? Would it be the entire digestive system?So if it had to be crudely split, there would be like respiratory health, gut health, reproductive health and what else?
AMAPREET: Neuro – spine and brain and all the cool shit, Gastro – food and gut, RespiratoryCardiovascular- heart and pipe works, Abdominal – surgical organs and stuff in your tummy, Obstetrics and gynaecology – reproductive and sex. Those are like your basics.
ROSE: That’s really helpful, thank you. So I could say that this ingestible thing would measure gut health witch could also be indicative of other types of health?
AMAPREET: To an extent yes, the Enteric system is the nervous system of the gut, they say there isn’t much research into it but it can link to neurological function and some other things.
ROSE: Perfect, thank you so much for your help!