WebProNews

Category: HealthRevolution

  • AI-Powered Sequencing Technology Is The Future In Medical Diagnostics

    AI-Powered Sequencing Technology Is The Future In Medical Diagnostics

    “This is next-generation sequencing,” says CareDx CEO Peter Maag. “It’s really the future in Diagnostics. We are applying this technology to match an organ with the recipient on a very granular level. We do that in organ transplantation, in bone marrow transplantation, and in transplantation overall. Now in the post-transplant area, we can actually detect the DNA of the transplanted organ in the bloodstream of the recipient. That’s a very novel technology.”

    Peter Maag, CEO of CareDx, discusses how their revolutionary AI-powered sequencing technology is extending the lives of organ transplant recipients and is the future in medical diagnostics. Maag was interviewed on Bloomberg Technology:

    AI-Powered Sequencing Technology Is The Future In Medical Diagnostics

    There are really two big issues in organ transplantation. On the one hand, you need to match an organ to a recipient. After transplantation, you need to care for that patient throughout the lifetime of that patient. We are applying very novel sequencing technology for matching the organ with the recipient. After that, we’re using the same sequencing technology to care for these patients detecting rejection episodes early and making sure that clinicians have the information to treat patients and to prevent rejection episodes from occurring in the past.

    This is next-generation sequencing. It’s really the future in Diagnostics. We are applying this technology to match an organ with the recipient on a very granular level. We do that in organ transplantation, in bone marrow transplantation, and in transplantation overall. Now in the post-transplant area, we can actually detect the DNA of the transplanted organ in the bloodstream of the recipient. That’s a very novel technology. The cell-free DNA technology is revolutionizing how we can care for patients because it detects rejection episodes earlier. When you add on this an artificial intelligence platform that allows clinicians to have a deeper insight in aggregating all the various data streams, it allows them to make better decisions and potentially detect issues much earlier than they can do today.

    Clear Focus To Improve Patients Lives By 3 Years

    We have a very clear focus as an organization to improve patients lives by three years. We’re very early in the ability to impact this but we are building an amazing platform at CareDX in order to do so. We can focus on immune modulation. We can focus on adherence and compliance and making sure that patients are actually taking their meds and seeing their doctors on a regular interval.

    Afterward, we also can focus on standardization and precision medicine, individualizing the care that the individual patient receives. The perfect care for that individual patient is really what we’re all about at CareDX. We’re applying precision medicine tools to the field of transplantation. We have built a tremendous platform to deliver and partner with the transplant ecosystem to make that available to transplant patients.

    A $2 Billion Market Opportunity

    This is really an amazing growth story. We have built this tremendous platform in transplant medicine. Over the last 18 months, we have already achieved five percent patient penetration in kidney transplant patients in the U.S. We see this as a $2 billion market opportunity. When we talked about this $2 billion market opportunity four or five years ago people were wondering, why is that? The reason is that these transplant patients really live for 10 to 15 years and there’s a recurring revenue opportunity for us on testing these patients throughout the lifetime of the patient.

    So CareDX has a model that follows these patients over a very long period of time, which financially is very attractive. But much more important, we are changing patients lives by making sure that we are detecting rejection episodes early. This is scientifically very interesting.

    AI Platform Will Role Out Into Many Other Areas

    You have on the one hand or transplantation is a unique opportunity in the context of being at the pinnacle of medical science. Some have called it the miracle of medicine. It truly is. If you think about it, innovation really happens at the top of the innovation curve. If you have innovation at the top of the pyramid this will allow us to learn a lot for other areas.

    We are doing now in transplantation about the top 200 medical centers in the United States that are doing transplantation. Once we have built an ecosystem that allows us to have artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence relationships with these centers and integrate into electronic medical records we can role that platform out into many other areas.

    AI-Powered Sequencing Technology Is The Future In Medical Diagnostics – Peter Maag, CEO of CareDx
  • AI and Robotics Are Fundamentally Changing Healthcare

    AI and Robotics Are Fundamentally Changing Healthcare

    AI, machine learning, and robotics are fundamentally changing healthcare, says Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky. “One of the most exciting parts of my job right now is to see the technology that’s usually equated with California and the West Coast,” said Gorsky. “Whether it’s AI, machine learning or robotics, you’re seeing it more and more being integrated into healthcare.”

    Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson CEO, discusses the reinvention of healthcare via technological innovation in an interview on CNBC’s Mad Money:

    AI, Machine Learning, Robotics Integrated Into Healthcare

    One of the most exciting parts of my job right now is to see the technology that’s usually equated with California and the West Coast. Whether it’s AI, machine learning or robotics, you’re seeing it more and more being integrated into healthcare. With this remarkable partnership that we have now with Apple where we’re taking this technology built into the iWatch to help detect things like atrial fibrillation or when you get a heart fluttering earlier. We know that there are over 35 million people around the world that suffer from this condition.

    If we can detect that earlier we can get them to write medication and we can help them be compliant on these medications over a longer period of time. Ultimately we’re going to save lives. I think it really shows how some of this new technology is coming to healthcare in new, innovative, and unique ways. We couldn’t have even imagined this just a few years ago. We’re talking about algorithms that are built into the watch that are monitoring health in real-time. It can detect these anomalies far before something really manifests itself that the patient’s going to recognize in the terms of symptoms.

    Robotics Technology Fundamentally Changing Healthcare

    Auris (recently acquired) is another great example of how this technology is fundamentally changing the way we’re thinking about healthcare. Today, less than five percent of surgeries are done with a robot or digitally. In the future, we think that’s going to be significantly greater. What we’re so excited about is just as technology has changed the way that we drive a car, where you pull up your map system or you see that light go on if you start to change lanes, think about that in surgery.

    Robotics Technology via Auris is Fundamentally Changing Healthcare

    Suddenly, a surgeon can go in preoperatively, utilized imaging to help him or her really navigate their way specifically to the lesion, and they can actually get guidance. We know that’s going to lead to better precision, better outcomes for the patient, and better value overall for the healthcare system.

    Healthcare Being Reinvented by Technology

    Think of it, for example, with our Auris Monarch Platform which is used for something called bronchoscopy. Now, if you happen to have a lesion or a tumor at a very far out section in your lung, they, of course, would have to go in through minimally invasive surgery to do a biopsy to better diagnose what you have. Imagine we take a tree and turn it upside down and that tree is your lung. We can run this wire down through the system, way out to the outer ends of the leaf. Think of it almost like the acorn.

    Once we get there we can do a biopsy or we can use imaging in the future to actually determine what kind of a cancer it is, or we could deliver a therapeutic, perhaps a new kind of immuno-oncology agent to that specific lesion, or we could go ahead and cut it out. Those are the kinds of things are being made possible by this new technology at a company like Auris.

    AI, Machine Learning, and Robotics Are Fundamentally Changing Healthcare

  • BrainQ Developed Unique AI-Powered Brain-Computer Medical Device, Says CEO

    BrainQ Developed Unique AI-Powered Brain-Computer Medical Device, Says CEO

    Working with the Google Developers Launchpad, BrainQ has developed a unique AI-powered brain-computer medical device, says their CEO, Yotam Drechsler. “It takes patients’ brainwaves as an input with a set of metadata and runs machine learning algorithms in the cloud and translates them into a tailored electromagnetic treatment aimed at facilitating their central nerve system recovery process,” says Drechsler.

    Yotam Drechsler, CEO of BrainQ, discussed the companies unique AI-powered technology in a video for Google Developers Launchpad:

    AI-Based Medical Device to Treat Neural Disorders

    BrainQ is developing an AI-based medical device aimed at getting powerless people following neural disorders, like stroke or spinal cord injury, back on their feet. Every single year, hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from neural disorders. Stroke alone accounts for 15 million people every single year. And the entire neural disorders cost to the US economy is $1.5 trillion every single year.

    My grandfather had a stroke several years ago. From being the center of the family, all of a sudden, he became paralyzed in half of his body. That means he can longer do simple things like grabbing a glass of water or dressing alone. That’s the reality for many people out there.

    Using AI to Model Physical Therapy

    The common treatment is what’s called physical therapy. It’s essentially exercising the hand or the leg back and forth. What BrainQ essentially does is modeling physical therapy and applying it directly to the brain. In a sense, we ask what happens for a patient or for a healthy person when he does a hand movement, like reaching his hand to grab a glass of water.

    We are getting a lot of people to do these kinds of movements and then we learn the patterns. We take these patterns that we have learned and identified and reapply it back to him as a personalized treatment.

    Developed Unique Brain-Computer Medical Device

    We have developed a unique brain-computer interface-based medical device. It takes patients’ brainwaves as an input with a set of metadata and runs machine learning algorithms in the cloud and translates them into a tailored electromagnetic treatment aimed at facilitating their central nerve system recovery process.

    We were very fortunate to have Google share this vision with us. We worked very closely with the GCP team on making this vision come true. We were fortunate to be on this program, and it really puts us on a fast track. And in all four fronts, we have developed the next generation of technology with precision medicine base, with the studio team, Peter Norvig, and the rest of the Googlers that were very, very keen in helping us.

    We had a large funding round in the past couple of months and we have several collaborations in the pipeline. We are hoping to continue on this promising track and really bring cure to millions of people around the world. And we are fortunate to have Google with us on this journey.

  • Rand Hindi: Human-Like Artificial Intelligence is Never Going to Exist

    Rand Hindi: Human-Like Artificial Intelligence is Never Going to Exist

    Dr. Rand Hindi says that without emotional intelligence machines will never be able to obtain human-like artificial intelligence. Reminiscent of Data on Star Trek Next Generation, Hindi says that despite the impressive ability of machines to learn from other machines and to solve logic problems better than humans, most decisions humans make are actually emotionally driven and machines simply don’t have an emotional IQ.

    Dr. Rand Hindi, CEO of cutting edge AI technology company Snips, recently talked about the future of AI at LinkedIn Talent Connect:

    Human-Like AI is Never Going to Exist

    I want to talk to you about the reason why I believe that human-like artificial intelligence is never going to exist and what that means for the future of work. Artificial intelligence is the ability to reproduce human behavior in a machine. That’s it. Take what a human can do intelligently, put it in a machine and you’ve got artificial intelligence.

    Within AI you’ve got one type of way to achieve this which is called machine learning. The idea of machine learning is that you’re effectively teaching machines to reproduce the behavior by giving it examples. It’s a little bit like a kids book where you have pictures of animals and the name of the animal is written and then after seeing a few pictures of horses your kids know how to recognize horses. It’s exactly the same thing in machines.

    Machine Learning is a Very Big Deal

    Machine learning is a very big deal because up until now when you wanted to automate something a human had to first understand what was going on, then sit down and program a machine to do that. Automation was limited to what humans were able to understand. With machine learning all you need is data collected from what you’re trying to automate and the machine does everything else. You no longer need a human expert in the loop.

    Within machine learning there is one type of algorithm that’s called deep learning. Deep learning is a branch of machine learning which is a branch of artificial intelligence and you could consider all three to be interchangeable today, but that’s going to change in the future. I don’t believe that word artificial intelligence is actually going to be used in marketing in the next few years.

    Deep Learning Has Been a Huge Revolution

    How have we been using deep learning? Deep learning has been a huge revolution. We see it happening for self-driving cars. We see it happening for medicine. Medicine is a very important use case for artificial intelligence because we have today AI that can diagnose x-rays or MRIs better than humans can.

    You’ve probably heard about Alexa, the voice assistant from Amazon. This is one of the fastest growing consumer products ever. Rumors are that one in six Americans uses that. This was not possible before because deep learning was not enabling us to talk to machines as naturally speaking.

    Is AI Getting Out of Control?

    Let me tell you about the world champion playing against Google’s artificial intelligence at the game of Go. The game of Go was considered to be extremely complicated for an AI to beat because the number of different combinations meant that the only way for a machine to beat a human is to actually learn how to play the game. We thought this was still ten years in the future. The way that they made this work was really interesting.

    They took one artificial intelligence and they made it play against another one. So one was playing the white side, one was playing the black side, but the trick is that every time one of the AI played a move the other one gave it feedback on that move. By mutually reinforcing each other by playing millions and millions of games, eventually they learned how to play the game better than any human.

    At the time, when they played against a world champion the world champion won one out of five games so this was amazing. But people felt a little bit reassured, they were like a 20 percent chance of surviving AI that’s still not bad! However, the same AI kept on learning. Today, not a single human can beat that AI at a single game. But there is more, there is a new version of this AI that beats that AI that beats every human at every game.

    When I saw that I was like, oh my god, this is just getting out of control, this is getting out of our hands. But what you need to understand is that everything I just talked about, however impressive it is, is still something that is called narrow artificial intelligence. Effectively, those machines are able to do one thing, perhaps do it better than a human, but they’re only doing this one specific thing. The AI that played the game of Go that was a breakthrough, but it doesn’t know how to do anything but play the game of Go.

    Machines Will Never Have Emotional Intelligence

    Now people are working on something that’s called general artificial intelligence. This idea that a machine could solve any logical task, that it could reason, that it could transfer the learning it had from something to something else. This is major because if you can have a general form of intelligence and reasoning then potentially machines could do anything that seems like intelligence.

    But this is still not what you see in movies. What you see in movies is a very human-like artificial intelligence. It’s not just reasoning and logic, it also includes the ability to emotionally connect with humans. So artificial human intelligence is really this combination of logical intelligence and emotional intelligence. It’s IQ plus EQ. If you only take IQ into the equation you don’t end up having human intelligence.

    Why is emotional intelligence important? It’s a way that as humans we can solve paradoxes. A paradox is a mathematical problem for which there is no logical solution. If a machine is not able to have emotional intelligence it will never be able to solve logical traps, which means as humans we can use our EQ to find traps for machines that have very high IQ.

    You might be thinking that machines are building emotional intelligence as well. We see all those amazing robots, people develop feelings for those robots as well. However, I believe that you will never have true emotional intelligence in machines.

    EQ First Requires Artificial Consciousness.

    Emotional intelligence first requires artificial consciousness. They will also need to feel emotions. This is very different than pretending to have emotions. It’s very easy for me to learn that when someone is smiling that person is probably happy and it’s very easy for me to smile back. But hey, I can be smiling but it doesn’t mean I feel happy right now. There’s a big difference between perception of emotion, between display of emotion and feeling emotions.

    We know that humans who don’t feel emotions are incapable of making decisions on a daily basis. They can do math, they can solve mathematical puzzles, so they have very high IQ potentially. But if you ask them what they would like for lunch they cannot answer because there is no algorithm to answer that question. Given that as humans most of our decisions are emotionally driven. Let’s be honest, we use the data to back it up but we make emotional decisions mostly. A machine that doesn’t have an emotional intelligence will never be seen as a human-like type of intelligence.

    What I’m trying to get to here is that yes, you will have an AI that has an IQ of five billion and yes every logical task is potentially doable by a machine, but humans will have the monopoly on emotional intelligence. Humans alone will be able to do emotionally driven tasks and so rather than think about machines replacing humans we really have to start thinking about humans and machines working together.

    How can we leverage the horizontal emotional intelligence of humans with the powerful mechanical logical intelligence of machines? Rather than try to build an AI that replaces humans completely, why don’t we start building an AI that actually works with a human in a very natural and very intuitive way.

  • Microsoft: It’s a Historic Time as the Whole Health Industry Moves to the Cloud

    Microsoft: It’s a Historic Time as the Whole Health Industry Moves to the Cloud

    Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Healthcare, says “It’s a historic time right now with whole health industry moving to the cloud.”

    Peter Lee and Aneesh Chopra, former Chief Technology Officer of CareJourney, discussed how the healthcare industry and all of the cloud providers including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, Salesforce, and Oracle are in agreement on data standards that are making this move to the cloud possible.

    Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Healthcare, and Aneesh Chopra, former Chief Technology Officer of CareJourney discuss this revolutionary move to the cloud by health providers:

    It’s a Historic Time

    It’s a historic time right now with the whole health industry moving to the cloud. We now have viable new standards for health data and there’s some pretty smart policy that you had a direct hand in creating. It all seems to be coming together right now. – Peter Lee

    A Wonderful Opportunity to Show Leadership

    The consumer right to access their health information and to make sure it’s available when and where it’s needed is really a bedrock principle that’s having an impact in all aspects of this. Physicians, health plans, and health systems are all trying to figure out how to communicate to consumers and how to use that infrastructure to better serve them through care teams and others. I think it is a wonderful opportunity to show some leadership. – Aneesh Chopra

    All of the Major Cloud Providers Came Together

    It was a pretty high point in my career to be on stage holding hands with my counterparts from Google, Amazon, IBM, Salesforce, and Oracle. It was pretty awesome. The idea is can we intervene in just the right way so that when health data moves to the cloud we will be in a more interoperable place. – Peter Lee

    Embracing a Common Language and Architecture

    The fact that we are not going to be Betamax versus VHS, that we preemptively said that the industry when it makes this move is going to embrace a common language and common architecture. I think that’s kind of a big deal. The more important thing is that none of this is going to happen on its own. We are going to have to have people participate.- Aneesh Chopra

    Health Responders Currently Can’t Access Health Data

    We heard some amazing stories, even from Seema Verma, the CMS Administrator, about what danger we put ourselves in when we get ill or something happens and the people who respond and try to help us can’t access health data. It doesn’t flow and it’s not liberative. It’s just something that we need to work together to fix. – Peter Lee

    This is a Unique Moment

    Everyone’s known this has been a challenge and it’s been a challenge for decades but the moment seems to be right. There is this transition to the cloud, there’s a regulatory clarity from both political parties that says with one voice we want open API’s with no special effort.

    Frankly, a commitment from the major EHR vendors as well as the health systems and other stakeholders should say we’re willing to participate and we’re willing to work together. That’s a unique moment that we’ve got to take advantage of for the industry.- Aneesh Chopra

    There is Some Marketing But It’s Also Authentic for Microsoft

    The HR vendors, that whole industry, has done an amazing job over the last 15 years getting everything to be digital. Now that that’s been accomplished, an amazing accomplishment that was, we now need to get the value out of that data. Really open it up, really enable it to be the thing improves costs and improves outcomes.

    For us, it’s also just a chance for Microsoft to play a positive role in all of this. Sure, there are big business opportunities, but when you think about Microsoft today and how open it is, the ethos to empower people and organizations, there is some marketing there but it’s also an authentic real thing for us. – Peter Lee

    The Time is Now

    The fact that there is a table that’s been set with all the key players including the EHR vendors and the cloud providers and even organizations like Apple saying let’s all agree that this is a path let’s start to get to work on, setting up clinical notes and all the other data that has not yet been run through a standards process.

    That’s why I think the opportunity for everyone to participate is now. If you have use cases if you have an opportunity to know how to move your data to a more open environment the window of opportunity is today.- Aneesh Chopra

  • Facebook Study Looks At Technology’s Role in Personal Health

    Facebook Study Looks At Technology’s Role in Personal Health

    Facebook IQ, Facebook’s research wing, which uses Facebook Insights along with work from researchers, with the goal of helping marketers better understand people and their habits, has the results of a new study out looking at health in the digital age.

    Findings include data on how people are leveraging health-related technology, such as fitness trackers, and their views on how tech can help improve their health in general.

    Facebook IQ worked with Crowd DNA, surveying people in the United States, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, and South Korea. They looked at Facebook data to analyze how people are talking about their wellbeing.

    A Facebook spokesperson shared the key findings from the research in an email to WebProNews. These are as follows:

    • Tech helps inspire youthful feelings, especially among Boomers; people are feeling “old” a lot later in life thanks to products & services that help their mind and body stay healthy longer:
      • 71% of Boomers
      • 67% of parents
      • 66% of Gen Xers
      • 62% of Millennials
    • Using health-related tech helps people feel empowered:
      • 57% say it helps them keep track of their goals
      • 55% say it gives them a sense of control over their life and health
      • 52% say it tells them more about themselves
      • 40% say they like to try new gadgets
      • 37% say it makes them a better person
    • What does the future hold? Interest in leveraging tech for personal sustainability and future well-being will continue to grow:
      • 44% are interested in swallowing a pill-sized digestible sensor that can monitor and transmit health information to a mobile phone or computer
      • 53% are interested in wearing a device that can track their brain activity to make recommendations for improving their emotions and behavior
      • 63% are interested in finding out more about what their genetic makeup/DNA can tell them about how to live a healthy life
      • 67% say that everyone five years from now will continuously track their health and fitness using technology
      • In the future, health-related device adoption could grow by…
        • 3.5X for devices that monitor heart rate
        • 1.8X for devices that track steps
        • 2.7X for devices that track sporting activities
        • 5.5X for devices that monitor sleep
        • 5.2X for devices that track diets
        • 6.4X for devices that track medications/health supplements

    Facebook has a blog post about its findings available here. This includes a short video on the subject.

    Key takeaways for marketers (via the post) are to create memorable experiences, consider how your brand can contribute to the phenomenon of people feeling younger for longer, and keeping a pulse on consumer behavior while following people’s expectations when it comes to using technology.

    Image via Facebook

  • Lung Cancer Screenings Have Racial Disparities

    Lung Cancer Screenings Have Racial Disparities

    Lung Cancer screenings may be muddled by racial differences in smoking habits, causing African-American smokers to be ineligible for screening more often than white smokers.

    Researchers from Yale used National Health Interview Surveys from 1965 to 2012 to determine differences in racial smoking habits, which helped get a better picture of total exposure differences.

    It seems, according to answers from the surveys, African-Americans started smoking later in life and kept smoking into their later years than their white counterparts.

    White smokers tend to start in their late teen years, but quit earlier in life.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWpwCa2HNUI

    However, African-American smokers smoked fewer packs per day than white smokers, but had a longer average duration of exposure when the effects of tobacco-related disease, like lung cancer, become more apparent.

    These numbers translated to fewer “pack years” for African-Americans, which are calculated by multiplying the number of packs smoked per day by years of smoking, thus leaving them less eligible for lung cancer screenings.

    The problem lies in the fact that African-American risk of death from tobacco-related diseases is as high or higher than that of white smokers.

    Researchers on the project are hoping these results will help the lung cancer screening process evolve.

    In related news, it could soon be illegal to buy cigarettes in California before the age of 21. The law is aimed at preventing the early start of the habit.

    John Billimek, a researcher with the Health Policy Research Institute in the UC Irvine School of Medicine, is hoping this kind of law will become wider-spread and will make it much harder for those in the 14-17 year range to get their hands on cigarettes.

    He thinks this age group, being around 18-year-olds at school all day, have an easy time getting the older kids to buy for them. They are much more rarely around 21-year-olds.

    Billimek said, “This can be a long-term effective policy to curb teen smoking. It’s important that a large metropolitan area like New York take the lead on this. If it works there, I wouldn’t be surprised to see other municipal, county or state governments try the same.”

    What do you think of the possibility of an age increase to 21 for purchasing cigarettes? Do you think it will cut down on lung cancer chances in the long run?

  • Cystic Fibrosis: New Medicine Gives Sufferers Hope

    Cystic Fibrosis: New Medicine Gives Sufferers Hope

    Cystic Fibrosis is a life-threatening genetic condition that affects many families. There is no cure for the disease and treatment options are limited. The condition causes salty-tasting skin, poor growth, and poor weight gain. It also causes mucus to build up in the lungs, making it hard for the sufferer to breathe.

    This can lead to lung and chest infections and other chronic illnesses. The disease is usually diagnosed at birth or during childhood. The prognosis for people who have cystic fibrosis has improved a lot over the last 50 years and as of 2010, survival is estimated to be 37 years for women and 40 for men.

    A new medication that was just approved in Australia could help increase this rate even more and improve the quality of life for cystic fibrosis sufferers.

    The new treatment is called ivacaftor and it is the first medication that can be used to treat the underlying cause of the condition. It will be marketed under the name Kalydeco and will be available in December.

    “With this new treatment many patients can experience an improved quality of life with reductions in respiratory and gastrointestinal complications, improved lung function and fewer hospitalizations,” Health Minister Peter Dutton said of the new treatment.

    While the drug cannot cure cystic fibrosis, it can help lessen the symptoms and decrease infections.

    Cystic Fibrosis Australia chief executive Michelle Skinner told ABC News 24 that the drug will be a big help to sufferers.

    “The medications that [patients] take are significantly reduced,” she said.

    “[The result is] less time having quite invasive treatments, less hospitalizations and a much, much better quality of life for children and adults with CF.”

    Right now the drug is only available in a few countries, but it could find it’s way to the United States and other countries as well. The Australian Government has approved $174.5 million the fund the medication.

  • 3D Systems Gets Into Medicine With Acquisition Of Medical Modeling

    3D Systems Gets Into Medicine With Acquisition Of Medical Modeling

    3D printing is going to change the face of medicine. That’s at least what some people will tell you. It’s hard not to believe them either as there have already been amazing success stories of lives restored thanks to 3D printing. Now 3D Systems thinks it’s going to be a big business going forward and wants a piece of the pie before anybody else gets to it.

    3D Systems announced today that it has acquired Medical Modeling – “a leading provider of personalized surgical treatments and patient specific medical devices, including virtual surgical planning and clinical transfer tools, using 3D modeling and printing.” Alongside the acquisition, 3D Systems is also consolidating its healthcare division under a single unit led by Medical Modeling President Andy Christensen. He is now 3D Systems’ Vice President of Personalized Surgery and Medical Devices.

    “We are thrilled to become part of 3DS,” said Andy Christensen, President, Medical Modeling. “We already use most of 3DS’ leading professional design-to-manufacturing tools including its Geomagic Freeform modeling software and haptic tools and advanced manufacturing Stereolithography and ColorJet Printing professional-grade 3D printers,” continued Christensen. “Working with surgeons around the world on tens of thousands of patient cases gives us a unique perspective on surgical planning opportunities that, together with 3DS technology platform and resources, could accelerate our global growth and enhance overall patient outcomes.”

    With this acquisition, 3D Systems is aiming to be the largest provider of personalized 3D printed medical devices:

    “The combination of our rapidly growing healthcare business with Medical Modeling’s expanding range of products and services creates the largest 3D printing based personalized surgery and patient specific medical device service capabilities available today,” said Avi Reichental, 3DS President and CEO. “By leveraging our collective expertise, technologies and channels under the capable leadership of Andy Christensen, we plan to deliver an expanding range of direct metal and plastic medical devices designed to address this rapidly expanding opportunity.”

    Medical Modeling is just the latest in a long string of acquisitions made by 3D Systems over the past few years. It’s last acquisition of Digital Playspace put it one step closer to producing 3D printed toys. It’s also getting into the 3D printed food market with its ChefJet Food 3D printer and a partnership with Hershey.

    Image via Medical Modeling

  • Medicine Man – The Costco Of Weed

    Medicine Man – The Costco Of Weed

    The busiest and biggest pot retail store in Denver opened its doors on Wednesday, January 1, 2014 to record crowds; with massive sales on a day many are coining “Green Wednesday.”

    In this ‘first in the history of America’ recreational pot store, it offers every kind of marijuana and paraphernalia a pot smoker could desire.

    Employees stand behind sales counters rolling joints, helping customers who want smell the different strains of marijuana before buying it, and the counter is continually crowded inside the Medicine Man marijuana retail store.

    The Williams family has built the “Costco” of weed, in a warehouse northeast of Denver, situated right next to a post office.

    Nine relatives from three generations work behind the bulletproof glass at Medicine Man, which has grown into one of the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensaries and has aspirations of becoming a national brand if pot legalization continues without a hitch.

    There was never any doubt that Medicine Man would open as a recreational pot shop after Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 in 2012, making it legal for anyone 21 and over to possess and use marijuana.

    Andy and Pete Williams, the brothers whose dream has been realized, are risk-takers who put everything on the line betting on a product that remains illegal in the eyes of the federal government.

    The Williams siblings haven’t had it all good, they have had recurring nightmares about being busted, enduring strained marriages and the judgment of neighbors, but the rush of being a part of something groundbreaking has kept them motivated.

    “I’d dream multiple times a week of landing in prison and never seeing my family again,” Andy Williams said.

    Imagine a day at the office, equipped with armed guards, stacks of cash, rewards programs for employees and sales clerks versed in 70 strains of marijuana and peach soda that can get you high.

    The edibles are something of a treasure trove at Medicine Man, they offer marijuana-infused products such as chocolate chews and soda, and products made with other people’s weed that also can provide a longer high and cost less compared with smoking it.

    “That is the message — edibles is what you want,” said Pete Vasquez, who started as a $10-an-hour trimmer and worked his way up to general manager. “When the time comes, the flowers sell themselves.”

    According to Andy, Medicine Man is the single largest dispensary in Colorado. Other companies sell more through multiple locations, but no one location moves more pot, he said. He declined to provide figures, citing competitive concerns.

    But you can rest assured, the business is booming, and the cash is flowing, most likely already surpassing their initial $125,000 investment. But mostly, the brothers poured money into perfecting their grow.

    Their “grow” consists of 9 separate rooms where a forest of plants are flowering. One 150-foot-long room called The Green Mile holds row upon row of plants in a vegetative state, “the factory that feeds the machine.”

    Wherever you look in the grow area is a lighting rig, a drainage system or other growing aid invented by Pete, a born tinkerer.

    “The eyes of the world,” Andy Williams says, “are going to be upon us.”

    Image via Medicine Man

  • Family Awarded $63 Million For OTC Medicine Reaction

    Family Awarded $63 Million For OTC Medicine Reaction

    A Massachusetts family has been awarded $63 million by a jury for a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction their daughter suffered when she was just seven years old. The cause? Children’s Motrin.

    The family filed a lawsuit after 7-year old Samantha Reckis was given the over-the-counter medication in 2003 and suffered an allergic reaction so bad, it took off 90% of her skin, left her blind, and damaged her lungs. Her family says it also affected her memory. The Reckis’ attorney claimed that Johnson & Johnson, the makers of the drug, never put a warning on the medication that it might cause an allergic reaction. Samantha came close to death and had to be placed in an induced coma while her body fought off multiple infections.

    The case has been drawn out for several years, so if the judge approves the settlement, the family will end up getting over $100 million after interest. The Reckis family says Samantha, who is now 16, is doing much better but still suffers from the after-effects of the reaction and has to work twice as hard in school due to her memory loss. Johnson & Johnson allegedly disagree with the verdict and issued a statement regarding their product, saying it is “safe and effective” when used as directed.

    “A number of medicines, including ibuprofen, have been associated with allergic reactions and as noted on the label, consumers should stop using medications and immediately contact a healthcare professional if they have an allergic reaction.”

    A warning on their website reads as follows:

    Allergy alert:
    Ibuprofen may cause a severe allergic reaction, especially in people allergic to aspirin. Symptoms may include:
    hives
    facial swelling
    asthma (wheezing)
    shock
    skin reddening
    rash
    blisters
    If an allergic reaction occurs, stop use and seek medical help right away.

    Image: Motrin.com

  • The Future Of Medicine Is In 3D Printing

    The Future Of Medicine Is In 3D Printing

    We brought you the first potentially negative use of 3D printers this morning with the revelation that one can make rare handcuff keys with a simple 3D printer or laser cutter. The technology is still really cool, but it must be used with great responsibility. Well, there’s another use for 3D printers that has a lot of potential to be abused, but also a lot of potential to save lives.

    The 3D printer revolution has taken hold of Professor Lee Cronin at Glasgow University. He has many interests, but one of his most ambitious involves 3D printers. In an interview with The Guardian, he talks up 3D printers and their potential for revolutionizing the medicine industry. His goal is to create “downloadable chemistry” so that people can print their own medicine at home.

    Of course, you can already see the problem here. Prescription drug abuse is a major problem in many countries, especially in the U.S. Giving people easy access to those drugs is a potential hazard that must be addressed. Cronin dismisses such a scenario and instead focuses on the benefits such an innovation could have on society.

    His team is now trying to build simple drugs with a 3D printer that only costs £1,200. So far, they have been able to build simple inorganic molecules inside reaction chambers. The next step is attempting to create something simple, like Ibuprofen. Cronin notes that if they succeed, they’ll be able to print just about any drug.

    The main benefit, according to Cronin, would be distributing drugs to places that never get them because “the population is not big enough, or not rich enough.” Besides releasing malaria resistant mosquitoes into Africa, Cronin sees 3D printing as an inexpensive way of getting malaria drugs into communities that need it most.

    3D printers are all about democratizing traditional distribution models. Before, we would have to demand an item and then wait for a company to manufacture and distribute said item. 3D printing puts the manufacturing and distribution into the hands of the people. It’s that core concept that drives Cronin to build a 3D printer capable of creating medicine.

    The final quote in The Guardian’s interview with Cronin is quite telling. On the matter of printing medicine, he says, “As well as transforming the industry and making money, we could be saying lives. Why wait?” “Why wait?” is the most important question right now in the 3D printing scene and I hope more people beging to realize that there is no reason to wait.