Sensory-driven micro-interventions for improved health and wellbeing

The five senses are gateways to our wellbeing and their decline is considered a significant public health challenge, which is linked to multiple conditions that contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality. Modern technology, with its ubiquitous nature and fast data processing, has the ability to leverage the power of the senses to transform our approach to day-to-day healthcare, with positive effects on our quality of life. Here, we introduce the idea of 'sensory-driven micro-interventions' for preventive, personalised healthcare. Micro-interventions are targeted, timely, minimally invasive strategies that seamlessly integrate into our daily lives. This idea harnesses humans' sensory capabilities, leverages technological advances in sensory stimulation, and real-time processing ability for "sensing the senses." The collection of sensory data from our continuous interaction with technology (e.g. tone of voice, gait movement, and smart home behaviour) opens up a shift towards personalised technology-enabled, sensory-focused healthcare interventions, coupled with the potential of early detection and timely treatment of sensory deficits that can signal critical health insights, especially for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.