The Man Who Saw Inside Himself
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Larry Smarr believes in being the CEO of his own body, and for years, he has been measuring inputs (food and drink) and outputs (caloric expenditure and excretion patterns), and juxtaposing that data with imaging and analyses of his blood and stool samples. “Transparent Larry” ultimately created a three-dimensional model of his inflamed colon, a virtual image that shortened and simplified his surgery for Crohn’s disease. Smarr may be unusual in his determination, but the tools he used represent the future of medicine. The difference in the operating room, said his surgeon, was like driving before and after the advent of Google maps. Patient and doctor will be on the stage together.
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