Download PRESS RELEASE For immediate release Lapetus Solutions, Inc

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Lapetus Solutions, Inc. Announces A Breakthrough Involving Wearable Data in a Scientific
Paper Featured in IEEE Computer.
Wilmington, NC, October 1, 2016 - In a forthcoming article, researchers at Lapetus Solutions
are the first scientists to successfully translate a common piece of information from wearable
sensors – step count – into a verifiable measure of health risk, and they estimate its impact on
health and longevity. According to Dr. S. Jay Olshansky, Chief Scientist at Lapetus, “Hold onto
your Fitbit – the data generated by this and other devices is far more valuable than you think.”
Olshansky and colleagues combine age, sex, height and weight, walking speed, stride length,
steps per mile and calories burned per step, and translate this innocuous data into rich
information that reflects improvements in health and expected gains in life expectancy and
healthy life expectancy if the level of physical activity – in this case walking – is continued.
According to Olshansky, an example illustrates this breakthrough clearly. “Consider a 65-yearold male with a height of 5'7" weighing 175 pounds; by walking at 4 miles per hour for a short
time during most days of the week, he can reduce his risk of death by 33 percent relative to
people who are sedentary.” And this is only the beginning. “The Lapetus science team is rapidly
progressing toward breakthroughs involving the inclusion of other wearable data such as blood
pressure, blood sugar, and sleep patterns among others. Taken together, health data from
wearable sensors provides a more accurate picture of your overall health than the snapshot you
get from blood and urine collected on the day of your once-a-year checkup.”
When wearables data is combined with other sources of health data like that collected with the
use of a facial image, an individual can develop a scientifically advanced long-term assessment
of their own health.
“Combining a selfie with wearable sensors provides unprecedented information about a person’s
health and wellness”, says Dr. Ricanek, the CIO and Chief Data Scientist at Lapetus Solutions.
“Health and behaviors are written on our faces, take for instance smoking: the signs of smoking
are quite apparent on the face. These signs are evident even after you stop smoking, unlike blood
tests for smoking which fail to detect smoking if you quit just a few days or weeks before the
test.” “The selfie is just another type of sensor that tracks with our age and health” and Ricanek
predicts that “sensors will eventually replace fluids as a better barometer of health and longevity
because they provide health data over time.” Furthermore, sensors can be calibrated to detect
health status when traditional methods fail. Consider body mass index, which is widely used as a
barometer of health. All BMI calculations are not equal; a couch potato will have a high BMI,
but so will some athletes. The selfie can distinguish between a couch potato and athlete because
the difference between the two is written on their faces.
When health information from wearable devices and facial analytics is then combined with
personal financial information like savings rate, readiness for retirement, income, as well as
education, age, gender and family history, it is then possible to create a simple easy-toLapetus Solutions, Inc.
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understand “score” that captures for each person, their overall health and financial risk. Scientists
at Lapetus call this the Better Life and Income Scoring System, or BLISS score, which will be
launched in early 2017.
Norvell Miller CFA, the President of Lapetus, sees the emerging data collection tools like
wearables and facial analytics, combined with an empirical sciences approach and deep learning
technology, as providing an intelligent method for advisors and consumers to make actionable
decisions impacting an individual’s future.
“Data gathering tools, analysis and scoring systems should help investment and health product
companies better design, underwrite and implement solutions for consumers, at much lower
prices. In addition, as advisors begin to focus on continuing lifetime relationships with their
clients, managing the optionality of time with finite endpoints and multigenerations may become
the most important part of the decision process.” Miller adds.
The manuscript describing this breakthrough will be published in a special issue of Computer on
the 1st of November – the title is “Designing the Future of Smart Health”.
Bruce Carnes, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Claire Yang, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill; Norvell Miller, Janet Anderson, Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, University of
California Los Angeles; Karl Ricanek, University of North Carolina at Wilmington. All authors
are affiliated with Lapetus Solutions, Inc.
About Lapetus Solutions, Inc.
Lapetus Solutions is a venture backed, fintech services company focused on helping the
insurance and financial services industries develop and deploy "life event" products.
The Chronos underwriting engine uses biodemography and facial analytics to engage consumers
online and rapidly approve them for products. The BLISS System provides advisory and scoring
functionality, and the Connect platform allows new and existing products to be cloud hosted in a
secure and compliant environment. For additional information, please visit
www.lapetussolutions.com.
Media Contact:
Joanna Taylor
Director of Administration
Phone: 910-202-6000
Email: [email protected]
About Computer Magazine
The IEEE Computer Society publishes a variety of high-quality, peer-reviewed, topical
magazines that represent the best in current research, developments, and timely information,
edited to enhance readability and clarity. The IEEE Computer Society's flagship
publication, Computer, features technical content covering all aspects of computer science,
computer engineering, technology, and applications.
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