In the vibrant setting of Las Vegas, the CES trade show once again dazzled attendees with its array of cutting-edge health tech gadgets. Prominent among the innovations were a smart scale, claiming to enhance healthy living by monitoring heart health through foot scans, and an AI-powered hormone tracker, resembling an egg, designed to predict optimal conception times.

Despite these impressive claims, experts in the fields of technology and healthcare remain cautious. They express concerns about the accuracy of such products and raise alarms over potential data privacy issues, especially as federal regulatory oversight appears to be diminishing.

In a significant announcement at the show, the Food and Drug Administration revealed plans to relax regulations concerning “low-risk” wellness products, including heart monitors and wheelchairs. This move aligns with the current administration’s broader strategy to lower barriers to artificial intelligence innovation. In contrast to previous administrations, the current White House has rolled back guidelines established to regulate AI, as demonstrated by recent policy shifts from the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at expanding AI utilization.

The conference also highlighted tech solutions aimed at addressing healthcare challenges, particularly in underserved rural areas. These innovations seek to alleviate doctor shortages, advance research in women’s health, and improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

According to Marschall Runge, a distinguished professor at the University of Michigan, AI holds substantial promise in the healthcare sector, valued at over $4.3 trillion. While AI excels in tasks like medical imaging analysis and optimizing physicians’ schedules, it is not without its pitfalls. The technology can inadvertently introduce biases and occasionally produce erroneous information, misleadingly presented as factual.

“I would urge people not to think that the technology is the same as a well-resourced, thoughtful, research-driven medical professional,” said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Privacy protections like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act do not cover information collected by consumer devices, and the companies could be using the data to train their AI models, or selling it to other businesses, Cohn said.

With a lot of the gadgets at CES, it’s difficult to find out where your information is going, Cohn said.

“You have to dig down through the fine print to try to figure that out, and I just don’t think that’s fair or right for the people who might rely on it,” she said.

But the creators of the products say their innovations fill in health care gaps, and they maintain they protect their customers’ privacy.

Sylvia Kang, founder and CEO of Mira, said she created the egg-shaped hormone tracker because many of her friends were trying to conceive and realized they had no knowledge of their hormonal health. To use the “world’s mini hormone lab,” you dip a wand in urine, insert the wand into the monitor and look at the results on the app.

Kang said her company uses AI to analyze female hormone data and has one of the world’s biggest hormonal health banks. The data is stored on the cloud and is not shared with anyone, Kang said.

“There was no such thing before,” Kang said of her $250 product.

Many gadgets at CES focused on women’s health, which has been historically under-researched and underfunded. Before 1993, women were excluded from clinical trials, and there still is little research on areas like menopause.

While not every woman will have a baby, all women go through menopause, and “yet we know nothing about it,” said Amy Divaraniya, founder and CEO of the women’s health company Oova, during a session.

One gadget called Peri aims to better understand perimenopause — the transitional phase before menopause. The wearable device monitors hot flashes and night sweats and provides the data via an app.

Improving accessibility to health care

Other products at CES were promoted as a way to increase accessibility to health information. The free medicine-focused AI chatbot called 0xmd helps improve access to medical information in areas with doctor shortages and provides a cost-effective alternative, said its founder and architect Allen Au. People can ask the chatbot questions about medicine, upload photos of a mole or rash, and submit their doctors’ notes for an easier-to-understand translation, Au said.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think we will replace doctors,” but it can give people a second opinion, Au said.

OpenAI announced on Wednesday its launch of ChatGPT Health, a similar platform.

Cohn remains skeptical of consumer tech. She said they can help prepare people to ask the right questions of their medical professional, but they’re not going to be a substitute for a doctor.

“People need to remember that these are just tools; they’re not oracles who are delivering truths,” she said.