6 Big Tech Health Ideas 2012

8/3/2019 6 Big Tech Health Ideas 2012

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6 Big HealthTech Ideas That Will Change

Medicine In 2012

JOSHCONSTINE

posted yesterday

In the future we might not prescribe drugs all the time, we might prescribe apps. Singularity University

(http://futuremed2020.com/) s executive director of FutureMed Daniel Kraft M.D. sat down with me to discuss

the biggest emerging trends in HealthTech. Here well look at how A.I, big data, 3D printing, social health

networks and other new technologies will help you get better medical care. Kraft believes that by analyzing where

the field is going, we have the ability to reinvent medicine and build important new business models.

(http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/daniel-kraft-of-singularity-

university.png) For background, Daniel Kraft

(http://www.crunchbase.com/person/daniel-kraft) studied medicine at Stanford and did

his residency at Harvard. Hes the founder of StemCore systems and inventor of the

MarrowMiner, a minimally invasive bone marrow stem cell harvesting device. The

following is rough transcript of the 6 big ideas Kraft outlined for me at the Practice

Fusion conference (http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/11/practice-fusion-ipad/)

Artificial Intelligence

Siri and IBMs Watson are starting to be applied to medical questions. Theyll assist with

diagnostics and decision support for both patients and clinicians. Through the cloud, any device will be able to

access powerful medical AI.

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For example, an X-ray gun in remote africa could send

shots to the cloud where an artificial intelligence

augmented physician could analyze them. Pap smears

and some mammograms are already read with some AI

or elements of pattern recognition.

This has the potential to disintermediate some fields of

medicine like dermatology which is a pattern based

field I look at the rash and I know what it is. Soon

every primary care doctor is going to have an app on

their phone that can send photos to the cloud. Theyll

be analyzed by AI and determine oh that mole looks

like a dangerous melanoma or its normal. So the

referral pattern to the dermatologist will slow down.

On the plus side, there are consumer apps like Skin

Scan (http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/06/27/check-

your-skin-for-a-melanoma-yes-theres-an-app-for-

that-too/) where for $5 you can take a picture of lesion

and send it to the cloud, and it will at least give you an

idea if its dangerous or not. If it is, it can help you

find a nearby doctor, which could help dermatologists

get more business. Many fields are going to change

because of artificial intelligence, pattern recognition,

and cheaper tests.

Big Data

Were gaining the ability to get more and more data at lower and lower price points. The primary example is the

human genome and genomic sequencing. It cost a billion dollars or more 10 years ago to get a complete human

sequence. However, the cost and speed of getting that data has dropped faster than Moores law to the point where

its less than $5,000 when ordered online. From 23andMe (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/23andme)

you can now get a cheap snip test, and it has a pilot program for $999 for a whole exam.

Maybe there were 10,000 patients sequenced last year. Next year it could be 100,000 and soon millions. A genome

sequence could be the cost of a blood count today. When that information becomes queryable in an a

crowdsourced and cloudsourced way we can be more predictive about what youre more likely to get based on your

genomics. You can then take preventative steps or get screened more often.

So were pulling in huge data sets from low-cost genomics to proteomics (analyzing the proteins in the blood) to

quantifiable self. The challenge is to make sense of that data and make it actionable information without making

the patient or doctor overwhelmed.

I think we need to make smart dashboards like they have for fighter pilots. They would piece together data from

ubiquitous sensors, like those made by GreenGoose (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/greengoose) , and

Microsoft Kinect (http://techcrunch.com/tag/kinect/) that can measure your activity around the house. It would

be like the OnStar for your body that could give you clues about when youre about to get in trouble, and it couldcall for help or guide you to appropriate therapy.




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(http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/greengoose-tooth-brush-sensor.jpg)

3D Printing

3D printing (http://techcrunch.com/tag/3d-printing/) has been around for a while but now its being applied to

medicine in ways such as being able to scan the remaining leg of a patient thats missing one from an accident. It

can then build a prosthetic leg with skin and size that matches. 3D printing is integrating with the fast-moving

world of stem cells and regenerative medicine with 3D ink being replaced by stem cells. In the future well

probably use 3D printing and stem cells to make libraries of replacement parts. It will start with simple tissues and

eventually maybe well be printing organs.

Social Health Network

Social networks have the ability to change our behavior. When you wireless weight scale shares metrics with your

friends, you get praised for success and pressured if youre not maintaining your diet. Social networks are also

quite powerful for tracking and predicting disease. James Fowler, co-author of the bookConnected

(http://connectedthebook.com/) is now working with Facebook to look at health data. Not surprisingly, the more

friends you have, the earlier in the flu season youll get influenza. This could help predict when youll get the flu

and let you take steps to avoid it.

Were in the Facebook era, and are more open to sharing information in the healthcare spectrum. Individuals will

share their whole history through services including PatientsLikeMe

(http://www.crunchbase.com/company/patientslikeme) and CureToegether

(http://www.crunchbase.com/company/curetogether) where patients with similar problems from migraines to

Lou Geghrigs disease will consolidate health information. This will enable improvements in clinical trials.

Genomera (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/genomera) is trying allow for low-cost web-based clinical

trial around any question. Practice Fusion (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/practice-fusion) can also

crowdsource that data from its electronic medical records. By collecting data from all the patients within a hospital

or a region you can see trends and almost run clinical studies on the fly. For example you could see all the patients

that have this gene and that are taking this drug, and determine if that drug is effective for them or not.




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Communication With Doctors

New communication platforms similar to a Skype or FaceTime will help you communicate differently with your

clinician. Many of these things are basically already here. The challenge is often not the technology but the

regulatory and reimbursement markets around them. If youre going to be talking with your clinician on your

iPhone you may need to do that in a HIPAA privacy protected way. The physician is also going to want to be paid

for that in some way. Theyre not going to want to get all your data every time you have a hiccup or look at your

iPhone pictures of your rash unless theres a way to get paid.

The regulatory system needs to adapt towards to becoming Accountable Care Organizations, which reward

clinicians and healthcare plans for keeping patients healthy opposed to paying them to do extra procedures. This

contrasts with a model of paying them for service like putting in stents and doing things after a problem has already

progressed. Incentives need to be aligned and reimbursement needs to change to enable some of these new

technologies to actually enter the clinic.

Mobile

The ability to have your phone tie to your healthcare record and track medical metrics will have vast repercussions.

Though some arent cleared for sale in US yet, devices like the Alivecor electrocardiogram

(http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/23/alivecor-turns-mobile-devices-into-low-cost-heart-monitors-raises-3-

million/) can monitor your heart in realtime, send the data to the cloud, and allow your cardiologist to look at it

instantly. Other devices are turning phones into otoscopes for looking in your ears, or glucometers for monitoring

blood sugar.

(http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/alivecor-iphone-ecg-funcionamiento-aplicacion.jpeg)

Quantified self devices like the Fitbit (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/fitbit) , Jawbone Up

(http://techcrunch.com/tag/jawbone/) , and more medically themed devices will take what you used to do dsin a

clinic or hospital and bring it home. This will allow therapies to be tuned much more effectively than scribbling

data on a piece of paper and bringing it in to your doctor months later.

Eventually these devices will converge into the equivalent of Star Trek tricorder that can perform a wide variety of

medical functions. Theres even an $10 million X Prize (http://www.xprize.org/prize-development/life-

sciences#artificial) proposed to reward the inventor of the first functional tricorder.




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Unfortunately, the strict regulatory system and entrenched, interested of the United States are pushing innovation

offshore. A lot of the work for using mobile phones for health care is happening in Africa and India. Since there are

few physicians in some of these areas mobile health and telemedicine are taking off. For example, microfluidics

allows multiple tests to be done on a small chip at pennies per test, with the ability to connect to the web for

analysis. The US will need to find a way to solve these regulatory problems while keeping patients safe, otherwise

obs and revenue could slip abroad.

To learn more about whats happening next in healthtech, check out Singularity Universitys FutureMed 2020

rogram (http://futuremed2020.com/), watchDaniel Krafts Ted Talk

(http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kraft_medicine_s_future.html), and browse ourhealthtech channel

(http://techcrunch.com/tag/healthtech/) .

[Image Credits: Guiacirugiaestetica.com (http://guiacirugiaestetica.com/%C2%BFcomo-funciona-el-

electrocardiografo-ecg-para-iphone-4-de-alivecor/) , shopping.com (http://www.shopping.com/Playmates-

Star-Trek-Starfleet-Medical-Tricorder-Collectors-Series-Edition/info) ]

(http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/tricorder2.png)


02/01/2012h // h h /2012/01/01/h l h h 2012/

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6 Big Tech Health Ideas 2012