Staying ahead of disease with data | Portfolio – Private Health Forum 2026

Portfolio featured my talk as one of the highlights of the 10th Private Health Forum. The article centres on one question: how can healthcare move beyond periodic measurement of disease and start using the data that people generate continuously in everyday life?

My own path is part of the story: during my electrical engineering studies, at the age of 21, I was diagnosed with a malignant tumour; surgery was followed by chemotherapy. I didn't interrupt my studies during treatment, and after recovering I deliberately turned to the border of medicine and engineering, earning a master's degree in the joint biomedical engineering programme of BME and Semmelweis University. Today, as a PhD researcher, I study AI-based digital health solutions and the technological possibilities of a long, healthy life.

My engineering mindset also shows in my own medical device development: a smart glove designed for people living with Raynaud's phenomenon measures heart rate, blood oxygen, skin temperature, activity and stress-related physiological signals to flag an approaching peripheral circulation problem before visible symptoms – and switches on heating automatically.

I don't see wearables as all-knowing diagnostic tools: a smartwatch or smart ring is mostly useful for observing longer-term trends, and individual values must always be interpreted in context. I ran longer measurements on myself: data from an ECG chest strap revealed that a lifestyle I considered natural was causing sustained stress – after which I changed my daily routine, rest and sleep. Data alone doesn't heal, but it can reveal a problem in time that we don't yet perceive.

I can speak about the same question as a former patient, an engineer, a researcher and a long-distance runner at once: I understand how a bodily phenomenon becomes measurable data, data becomes an algorithm, and an algorithm becomes – with proper clinical validation and regulation – a usable healthcare tool.

I don't sell ready-made recipes but a mindset: prevention, patient education, digital health, wearable sensors, AI and lifestyle data – plus the human dimension without which healing easily becomes a mere system process.