Dr. Marco Perez of the Stanford University School of Medicine addresses attendees at the Palo Alto Community Health Fair at Mitchell Park Community Center on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. Photo by Clay Lambert.
Families continued to flock to Mitchell Park Community Centre on Saturday, September 21st to take part in a health fair designed to showcase community services and educate people on what they need to do to stay healthy at different stages of life.
This year’s free event marked the seventh time the Palo Alto YMCA has partnered with Stanford University School of Medicine and the City of Palo Alto to provide advice to residents with health questions. Palo Alto Weekly also sponsored the event.
The fair offered something for everyone: There was information on balance and fall prevention for seniors, meditation demonstrations, and plenty of opportunities to interact with doctors about specific medical questions.
One focus this year was the increase in health information coming from consumer wearables like the Apple Watch and Fitbit, and three Stanford cardiologists were on hand to discuss how a growing number of everyday items, from sensor-equipped shirts to removable tattoos designed to collect data, are providing doctors with valuable insights.
Dr. Paul Wang said the capability gap between what once required medical-grade detection equipment and the cheaper devices now sold to consumers is narrowing, and that non-invasive, wearable devices could one day be used to test for markers of 20,000 diseases, he said.
Dr Jason Tso, who focuses on exercise and cardio, said experts recommend 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day, five days a week.
“How much and what kind of exercise should we do?” Tso asked rhetorically. “That’s exactly what wearables can help with.”
Healthcare workers at the event also took time to discuss mental health, an aspect of healthcare that has in many ways increased exponentially due to the rise in COVID-19 cases and subsequent social distancing measures. All Cove Palo Alto staff were on hand to talk about the services available at the organization’s facility on Middlefield Road and ways to stay on top of good mental health.
The success of the event was due in part to volunteers from the city’s high schools, who introduced speakers and helped with logistics.
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