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Date	November 2020	Marks available	2	Reference code	20N.1.SL.TZ0.3
Level	SL	Paper	1	Time zone	no time zone
Command term	Identify	Question number	3	Adapted from	N/A

Question

The role of portable digital devices in health

Jaime is an athlete and uses his sports watch to monitor his training sessions. He also uses it to keep a record of his health and well-being. The sports watch can monitor Jaime’s vital signs. It is also global positioning systems (GPS) enabled, so it can track his location (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Data collected by a sports watch

The information that is recorded by Jaime’s sports watch is synchronized with a mobile application (app) installed on his cellphone/mobile phone.

Identify two vital signs that can be recorded by Jaime’s sports watch.

[2]

a.i.

Identify the steps that the GPS receiver in Jaime’s sports watch uses to show the routes of his training runs.

[4]

a.ii.

Jaime has decided to share his personal health information with researchers at the University of Sierra Nevada.

Analyse Jaime’s decision to share his personal health information with the University of Sierra Nevada.

[6]

The development of mobile health apps has changed the way citizens manage their own health and well-being.

Discuss whether citizens like Jaime should rely only on the advice of a health app to manage their own health and well-being.

[8]

Markscheme

Answers may include:

Heart rate / pulse
Blood pressure
Blood oxygen level / oxygen saturation
Respiration rate
Body temperature

Award [1] for identifying each vital sign, up to a maximum of [2].

a.i.

Answers may include:

The GPS receiver receives data from satellites that circle the earth, tracking the location of the runner as he moves.
The GPS receiver receives information about the orbits of each satellite (so it knows where each satellite will be at any given moment).
The GPS receiver calculates how far away from each satellite it is and therefore where it is on the surface of the earth.
It measures the distance to each satellite by calculating the amount of time it takes to receive its signal.
Once the GPS receiver has a minimum of three satellites in its fix, it can calculate its position on earth.
It uses a process of trilateration.
With two satellites in its fix, a GPS receiver can calculate its latitude and longitude (2D fix).
With three satellites in its fix, a GPS receiver can calculate its latitude, longitude and altitude (3D fix).
With four or more satellites in range, the GPS receiver can compensate for time differences between the receiver’s clock and the satellites’ clocks.
Using the location data, the route can be displayed on a map (GIS software).

Award [1] for identifying each step that global positioning systems (GPS) follow to give an accurate location, up to maximum of [4].

a.ii.

Answers may include:

Reasons for sharing his personal health information:

The university may have access to data analytics tools that can interrogate his personal health information and give him feedback on his health/fitness.
The university may be able to provide additional health-related information.
The university may be able to analyse Jaime’s data against other and/or larger data sets.
Jaime may accept that his data is “out there” already so there is no harm in re-sharing it (values).
Jaime may wish to contribute towards research at the University of Sierra Nevada (values).

Reasons for not sharing his personal health information:

There may be no way of knowing which other third parties the university is sharing Jaime’s data with (values, systems).
The university may impose conditions that may mean the data is not used for the purposes it was intended (values).
Once the data is shared, it is hard to guarantee that it is deleted when it is no longer needed (values).
Patient privacy is a concern. Is data anonymized and does the university have sufficient security measures in place?
The sharing of Jaime’s data may have unintentional consequences (systems, accountability).

Keywords: health, data, security, trust, values, ethics, security, anonymity, privacy, change, systems, values, ethics, accountability

Answers may include:

Reasons why citizens like Jaime should only rely on the recommendations of the health app:

The health app may be more consistent in its advice than a human doctor (systems).
The health app will not be influenced by the patient during the consultation / will be completely objective (systems).
The health app may lead to savings (for the user of the app) so that other treatments that are currently not available may become possible as money is freed up / health app may be more cost-effective for the user than visiting a specialist.
The health app is available 24/7 (systems).
It is convenient, the app is available immediately, and Jaime would not have to visit a doctor or sports scientist to get advice (systems).
The information from the app is available immediately without any delays (systems).
The health app can be updated almost instantaneously, whereas doctors would have to attend courses to ensure new procedures, etc., are explained (systems).
The app is available in any location so could, e.g., be used on holiday and the information and advice would still be available (systems, ubiquity).

Reasons why citizens like Jaime should not rely only on the recommendations of the health app:

The health app may be based on a generic profile and not have sufficient background data to make a more meaningful diagnosis than a human.
The users may not trust the health app due to reliability and integrity issues.
The quality of the data being collected may be poor and the advice might not be reliable.
Negative results/unreliability could result in anxiety or cause Jaime to overexert himself in order to follow the advice of the app.
Jaime may trust his judgement more than the app.

In part (c) of this question it is expected there will be a balance between the terminology related to digital systems and the terminology related to social and ethical impacts.

Keywords: health, data, trust, judgement, values, ethics, anonymity, privacy, monitoring, algorithm, change, systems, power, values, ethics

Refer to SL/HL paper 1, part c markbands when awarding marks. These can be found under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials > Digital society markbands and guidance document.

Examiners report

[N/A]

a.i.

[N/A]

a.ii.

[N/A]

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Topic 3: Content » 3.1 Data

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