As discussed in a recent post, medical industry innovation is a hot topic. From making the patient experience better through communication to moving the drug development process into the future, like companies like Sanofi are doing. Sanofi is using technology licensed from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary along with a development pact with Audion Therapeutics to combat hearing loss. The goal is to discover small molecules to treat hearing loss through regenerative medicine. There are currently no disease-modifying prescription drugs for hearing loss, which affects nearly a third of people aged 65 to 74 and half of those over 75 Read the rest of this entry »
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The field of medicine development and medical care seems to have no end to the potential for innovative solutions for making it better: more effective, more efficient, more accessible. This year, several U.S. based initiatives have focused on improving health care through advancements in information management.
Early Warning System
Studies have found that in 2006 well over $30 billion was spent on unnecessary hospital admissions. California based Heritage Provider Network, believes there has to be a way to identify earlier patients most at risk and ensure they get the treatment they need. So they are offering a $3 million USD prize to whoever can find that better way.
A contest sponsored by Heritage and organized by crowdsourcing platform Kaggle, challenges contestants to create an algorithm that will predict, based on three years of historical data, how many days each person will spend in the hospital in the one year after those three-years. To do so, contestants will use predictive data modeling, to examine the historical medical data from anonymized real-life Heritage patients. The winner will be the contestant that is closest, on average, to the actual number of hospital days for each patient.
The goal is to create an “early warning system” for managed care providers and provide a better way to identify which patients need care immediately to improve their health—and save on high costs that would be required during a hospital visit.
Telemedicine Trends
Several entrepreneurial health care companies are capitalizing on the API’s provided by wireless carriers such as Sprint. For example, American TeleCare, Inc. (ATI) uses solutions such as a remote stethoscope in clinic-to-patient home settings and a sophisticated, interactive video technology application to access more patients at lower bandwidths. Reflection Solutions provides wireless personal health monitoring, connecting patients and their caregivers. A wristwatch device monitors a patients’ health and physical activity and provides instability and fall detection.
A few weeks ago, a post discussed a crowdsourcing project by the U.S. military to source a new vehicle design.
An update on that story finds the winning design is being built by a company that already has experience with its own innovative design competitions. U.S.-based Local Motors doesn’t even have a designer on staff. Instead, each major system for their first product, the off-road vehicle named Rally Fighter, was open sourced. And that’s not where the unique experience. Buyers of the $59,000USD Rally Fighter are invited to Local Motor’s “micro-factory to participate in the vehicle build process.
Each of the 141 current owners have had opportunities to customize their model even further to make a truly one-of-a-kind vehicle. Local Motor’s has even developed an owner’s community, mapping their locations and hosting a discussion forum on their website.
Now they have taken the military vehicle from computer design to production in just a few weeks. According to Defense Professionals, the vehicle could be a welcome addition to U.S. military forces, whose current Ground Combat and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles have Afghanistan.
Local Motor’s continues to host design contests for parts, systems and concept design. A recently closed been found to be inadequately armored against the kind of IEDs they are finding in competition challenged contestants to imagine the world in 2085 and design a racing vehicle AND support craft capable of completing the Terra Prix– a race around the world traversing all 7 continents and involving nearly every terrain imaginable.