Wearables cluster on the healthy and wealthy. Chronic disease clusters where coverage is thinnest. Every dot is a state — drag the coverage line and watch which populations the monitors are missing.
Companion to today's newsletter · on "The Quantified Few"
The dots don't scatter randomly — they climb. Where coverage is thinnest, the disease burden is highest, which is exactly where continuous monitoring would do the most good and is least likely to be worn. A model trained on the wrist that owns a wearable learns the opposite population.
Read the source essay: "The Quantified Few" →Source: CDC PLACES, 2024 release — crude prevalence, county estimates averaged to state level (BRFSS-derived models). "Uninsured" = adults 18–64 with no health insurance (ACCESS2). National county correlation of uninsured × diabetes: r = 0.43 (n = 3,078). Ownership context: "The Quantified Few." DC included; national aggregate excluded.