Posts by: Medgadget Editors

FutureMed: Taking Electronics Out of the Proverbial Box

by Medgadget Editors on Feb 21, 2012

“We are trying to reshape electronics to advance the quality of life,” said David Icke, CEO of MC10 at a special FutureMed-organized event on the evening of February 10. Icke explained that his company was working to free “electronics from the tyranny of rigid wafers,” enabling them to interface with soft tissue.

While the exponential pace of development has enabled phenomenal gains in computing power, modern electronics are typically rigid and packaged into boxy devices. It is certainly true that the mobile paradigm has changed how (and how often) we interact with electronic devices, but Icke predicts that further changes are on the horizon and that the next big trend will be conformable electronics.

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At FutureMed, IBM Doctors Advocate New Approaches to Medicine

by Medgadget Editors on Feb 13, 2012

FutureMed featured back-to-back sessions from Paul Grundy, MD and Watson guru Marty Kohn, MD. We’ll give you a rundown of both of their presentations here:

Paul Grundy, MD, IBM’s global director of healthcare transformation, is a proponent of a primary-care model called the “Patient Centered Medical Home.” Dr. Grundy explained that he developed the model by looking for the pain and suffering in the current healthcare delivery system and working to change it in “profoundly different ways.”

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Surgical Robotics Pioneer Discusses Holomers and Plasma Medicine at FutureMed

by Medgadget Editors on Feb 13, 2012

At FutureMed, Richard Satava, MD gave an impressive presentation that touched on everything from breakthroughs in surgical robotics to plasma medicine. He is a professor of surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center, but he also helped pioneer the surgical robotic system that eventually became Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci.

Early in his talk, Dr. Satava stressed the need for a new scientific methodology. While the scientific method has served us well and will do so going forward, it has limitations. In the future, we should expand our reliance on simulation technology, which “takes our current information technologies out of the present and brings them into the future.”  Simulation technology, once it is able to mimic human biological processes, would disrupt the clinical trial process. “Right now, it costs $200 million dollars and 20 years to go through a complete, randomized clinical study.” But in the future, clinical trials won’t be based on “blood and guts,” they’ll be based on bits and bytes. And they will be much more accurate and faster to carry out.

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Sean Ahrens at FutureMed: How Crohnology Is Fueling the Patient Revolution

by Medgadget Editors on Feb 9, 2012

While speaking at FutureMed, Sean Ahrens explained his frustrations as a patient suffering from Crohn’s disease and his dissatisfaction with conventional treatments for the condition. To deal with the problem and to help others with Crohn’s or colitis, he created Crohnology, a patient-to-patient information sharing platform.

Ahrens explained how the platform fits into the broader context of the “patient revolution,” in which patients are becoming increasingly motivated to become active participants in their healthcare. This revolution is being fueled by mobile tools and social media, he said. And it is becoming necessary, as our healthcare system struggles to deal with rising cost pressures, an uptick in chronic conditions and as doctor–patient interaction becomes increasingly limited.

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Award-Winning Author Talks Personalized Medicine at FutureMed

by Medgadget Editors on Feb 9, 2012

Noted journalist and author David Ewing Duncan kicked off the Wednesday session of FutureMed by discussing personalized medicine and his work on the Experimental Man Project. The experiment, which is “ongoing,” is what Duncan described as a “humanized” way to look at personalized medicine, which can be useful in explaining the technology to the masses. He argued that personalized medicine stands in stark contrast to traditional medicine, which is “one-size-fits-all” and tries to fit patients “into a box.”

Pharmaceuticals are one of the most-needed applications of personalized medicine, he said, and the response rates for many drugs are pretty dismal. For instance, antidepressants don’t work for about 40% of people because they aren’t targeted for specific demographics based on genomic data. There is a low response rate to oncology drugs right now, Duncan added, but “we are getting better at targeting the drug to the right physiology.”

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Doctors in Tech: Interview with Medical Device Entrepreneur Kathy Stecco

by Medgadget Editors on Jan 27, 2012

Medgadget recently had the opportunity to interview Kathryn Stecco, MD, a globetrotting surgeon and an entrepreneur in the medical device space. Stecco is at once a medical consultant and monitor at BaroSense Inc., a surgical consultant at Mach Labs L.P., medical director of Nfocus Neuromedical Inc., and an external consultant to AKA Lifesciences. Dr. Stecco, who calls Silicon Valley home, has worked with local medical device legends Thomas Fogarty, MD and Mir Imran.

In this interview, she explains how studying medicine helped prepare her for working in the device field, and shares advice with physicians looking to follow a similar path to hers.

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