The promises and pitfalls of personalized health

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Column ColumnPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Column AI AIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All AI Gadgets GadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All GadgetsThe promises and pitfalls of personalized healthPersonalized health is the holy grail, but there’s a long way to go before algorithms can factor in chronic conditions. by Victoria Song Victoria SongSenior Reviewer, Wearable TechPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Victoria SongMay 15, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Column ColumnPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

FollowSee All Column AI AIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All AI Gadgets GadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All GadgetsThe promises and pitfalls of personalized healthPersonalized health is the holy grail, but there’s a long way to go before algorithms can factor in chronic conditions.

by Victoria Song Victoria SongSenior Reviewer, Wearable TechPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Victoria SongMay 15, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC Victoria Song Victoria SongPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Victoria Song is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter.

She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine. This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life.

Industry Implications

Opt in for Optimizer here. A few days ago, my esthetician was smearing hot wax on my face. The two caterpillars I call eyebrows were in desperate need of taming — as was my lady ’stache.

I hate this monthly ritual, but facial hair is a sore spot. Hirsutism is perhaps one of the few visual indicators of a condition that’s plagued me for the past decade. Until this week, I’ve always known it as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Normally, I spend waxing sessions chattering away about the weather (it’s sort of hard to have deep conversations when someone is ripping hair off your face). But that day, we spent the entire session talking about how the global medical establishment decided this week to rename PCOS to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS. There are several reasons why.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.