The airline, like many others, are seeking ways to enhance the flying experience and one area presenting the biggest challenge lies in the area of aviation health.

The pill would be taken before flight and would be used in conjunction with on-board monitors and wearable health devices, to examine and record your body temperature, body acids and sleep patterns.

The goal behind this patent it seems is not just to monitor air passengers health but to adjust the environment around individual passenger’s, helping to direct them toward sleeping, eating and exercise during the flight; the ultimate at seat service?

When reading this I began to think about the current methodologies that govern health in holidays. On the one hand we have travel companies who claim that they carry out health and safety audits on the properties that they sell, on the other, cruise companies now routinely screen passengers before they are allowed to step on-board and any gastrointestinal illness detected in the period up to a month before the cruise, virtually guarantees a ‘denied boarding’ situation!

But with the British Airways future concept now in the public arena, how far away is it before that technology presents itself; is a scenario developing where as part of the terms and conditions of you taking a holiday, you have to ‘take the medicine’?

There will be those who will argue that this is an invasion of privacy, but how do you balance that position against the ownership of a health app on your phone or through the wearing of a health monitor watch or wristband? The advocates of resistance will however cite quite reasonably, that simply obligating a Consumer to ‘swallow the pill’ through a contract, raises issues of ownership of data, transmission of that data, limitations of use on your personal data and more importantly, how long does the ‘pill’ remain in the body; are there are residual nanotechnologies left behind?

I also think that there is an important issue at stake; if the current ‘tick box’ terms and conditions mentality prevails, how many people will you unintentionally share that data with? Could an insurer be in that ‘sharing’ cohort; will we find that Travel Insurance companies become part of that ‘obligating’ contract, on the basis that this is a bolt on to their service and they simply want to keep you safe? Importantly, the sensor capabilities of this technology, could also be capable of or be programmed to detect other health deficits; could this lead to individuals eventually becoming generally uninsurable because of health problems, simply because you agreed to ‘share’ the data - could it lead paying customers being refused travel because they are deemed to be a risk?

As technology advances so do many questions! But, what are the potential benefits of this technology? Imagine the same methods being applied in a typical all-inclusive hotel; Consumers would be ‘examined’ whilst they toast themselves in the sun, receiving prompts to take cover, apply cream or hydrate. You could potentially ‘ask’ the technology to help you deliver that healthy eating programme you have promised yourself and through sensor technology placed in the food preparation area, Consumers could see not only the safe delivery of food but the ‘pill’ could also help you to manage that diet. Alcohol intake could be monitored, guiding you to safe limits beneficial to health and where you do suffer with some form of sickness, it could technically connect you with your GP, who could guide you and prescribe electronically the medication you need!

This of course provides a benefit to travel companies in that they will be able to monitor the health of their guests and respond swiftly to any threat presented by any hotel to the well-being of their customers; it presents perhaps the best opportunity to deliver a safer travel product over and above the current manual efforts to raise standards.

Is this just simply ‘pie in the sky’ or does this present a near future opportunity; a change to the way we live, work and play? Consider the predictions for the next 10 or 20 years, then remember the early brick/backpack sized mobile phones of the early 1980’s and how we now take for granted that small hand-held device that never leaves our side. The future looks great on many levels but as we embrace these advances, we do need to ask the difficult questions and prevent the potential rise of an underclass deemed not worthy or fit enough to receive insurance or indeed to travel!

© Frank Brehany 2016 - All Rights Reserved (First Published on 1/12/16)