McLaren F1
driver Carlos
Sainz receives
personalized
training
programs.
34
Formula 1 typically conjures images of
fast cars, checkered flags, and quick tire
changes. And today, the same digital
technology that optimizes race car performance
is buzzing around medical facilities and
in consumer wellness, monitoring improvements in
patients, and helping us perform at our best.
McLaren Applied Technologies—a company that
uses data-driven technologies to power Formula
1 car racing—helped one British pharmaceuticals
company monitor recovery in stroke victims and
people suffering from severe arthritis, using smart
sensors and data analytics. Much like with cars,
the key is to find predictive and actionable insight
(in this case, from the human body) efficiently
from rich, real-time data.
To track the health of stroke patients enrolled
in clinical trials, clinicians have typically relied on
recording activity levels each time a patient visited
the clinic. McLaren Applied Technologies provided
patients with sensors to accurately monitor patient
recovery with a greater degree of real-world,
evidence-based insight. The sensors correlated
wearers’ activity and gait profile with disease
progression, helping to provide personalized insight
about the patient’s response to drug treatment.
This real-time data about patient activity has
allowed clinicians to get a better understanding of
patient progress between clinical visits and determine
informed interventions. This kind of biotelemetry
has also ensured more accurate results and
increased confidence in the studies, and long term
the hope is that this technology will help to bring
new drugs to market sooner, at lower cost.
According to Duncan Bradley, health unit business
director at McLaren Applied Technologies,
these kinds of health monitoring systems are not all
that different than those used to monitor McLaren
Formula 1 cars. The McLaren team uses up to 300
sensors on a car at any one time and uses that data
to build the best strategy for a race. “It started off
with us saying, ‘Well, if you can continuously devel-
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCLAREN APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES