Category Archives: BioEngineering

Healthgamescamp is a barcamp organized specifically to create digital and non-digital games specifically geared towards creating a positive change in people's health behavior. Any barcamp can be fun and of course this is truly fun for yours truly, so, yes, I am going and I thought I would do a "pre" post.

Of course, some of you are wondering...

Whatever is a barcamp?

In the spirit of open, barcamps have come to be "unconferences" or user-generated conferences. Of course, I could go on and on plagiarizing wikipedia and fatten this post, but I will link it here for you to read. Suffice it to say, the concept of open conferences, run by user generated ideas is a really cool thing. If you wish to disagree...well maybe you should pay thousands of dollars and fly to some island off-season.!

As usual, the first barcamp happened here in Palo Alto, and things have gotten, er big. They have also grown from one field to many. Learn more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

HealthGamesCamp

HealthGamesCamp is organized by David Schafran, a great acquaintance with experience doing some excellent work for Villagro in India, and Julian Keith Loran of the Innovation Management Institute, whom I am yet to meet.

The idea of this specific unconference is to bring together all kinds of folks ranging from healthcare professionals to policy product managers to mHealth gurus and beyond. Of course, I am not aware of who the attendees are yet, but I will try to do a post-event blog and try to highlight all the exciting things I learn about!

Alright, only a few more hours left..

November is Diabetes Awareness Month (incidentally, it is also the Lung Cancer Awareness Month) and this year, November 14th is the World Diabetes Day.

Diabetes, or originally Diabetes Mellitus derived it's name from the sweet taste of urine that was used as a diagnostic by the Romans. As a disease, it is no stranger to human civilization and has afflicted humans for a while now.

Type 1: As an autoimmune disease, Diabetes Type I, is inherently a disease where the body simply cannot produce insulin via the "islets of Langerhans" thus unable to produce enough energy needed for subsistence. This disease is more prevalent in young children and in adults. Through insulin therapies, this disease can be managed, but is debilitating nevertheless.

Type 2: Diabetes Type 2, typically has an adult onset. In this condition, the body is simply unable to produce enough insulin to convert sugar into energy, or the cells do not use the insulin as expected. Type 2 is the more prevalent form, has been diagnosed in 24 million Americans (an estimate upped form 21 million) and is expected to afflict more people, who are probably simply unaware of it. In countries like India, and among Indians everywhere it has reached epidemic proportions as well.

Some of the causes include unhealthy life styles, eating and working habits and so on. People with rice based diets of Asian origin appear to be afflicted by this disease more often.

Type 3: Is there a type 3? New research has shown that a certain number of children with Type 1 Diabetes also show tendencies for Diabetes Type 2. This is a risky condition and thus, even though it has been statistically delineated, has been assigned it's own category. The "double diabetes" as it is known is attributed to patients being overweight and a general lack of awareness.

Apart from this, gestational diabetes refers to the onset of diabetes during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes may then prolong throughout the mother's lifetime and can become Type 2 diabetes at that point.

Awareness

The biggest gap, when it comes to diabetes stems form a lack of awareness. Diabetes would be diagnosed in a lot more people if only they were made aware of diabetes and the symptoms and the predispositions.

One has to remember that people with diabetes Type 2 may not even have the symptoms sometimes. Please refer to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) website for a list of symptoms to watch out for either type of diabetes:

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/symptoms/

You should consider taking a Diabetes Risk Test:

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/diabetes-risk-test/

The World Diabetes Day website also lists some risk factors:

http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/the-campaign/diabetes-education-and-prevention/diabetes-risk-factors

You should also look at some of the warning signs here:

http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/the-campaign/diabetes-education-and-prevention/diabetes-warning-signs

TuDiabetes:

My friends at TuDiabetes ( http://www.tudiabetes.org ) a non-profit organization focused on Diabetes Awareness, Actions and other Campaigns have a video for you!

A big hello to everyone. It has been a while since I have posted, but I am hoping to post more in the coming week. Remember, it is both the National Diabetes Month and the National Lung Cancer Month. More on this later. Last week, I fell behind my email and everything else, as it seems common nowadays.

A video on jobs - on or off topic?

Combing through and cleaning up, I came across an interesting video. I am not sure how accurate it is, and I am not sure if it is on-topic or off-topic. Personally, I feel that there are some lessons to be learned here, for any kind of entrepreneur, or for folks who are interested in real social change and not simply "mob by association".

First, the video

To preface, this video is very cynical and the Southern drawl appears to be accentuated to the point of entertainment, but the video provides you with examples ranging from the mundane to the bizarre, talking about how local and state governments hinder start-ups and the creation of jobs!

Watch it here:

Some thoughts for the entrepreneur

1. Let's go with my golden rule. Do not believe or trust anyone wholeheartedly. There are too many organizations out there that are extremely politicized.

2. As an entrepreneur, you can sit there and wish that all the paperwork and regulations would go away. However, you need to think in terms of what you can do in the near future and over time. In the near future, as you burn through precious, yet limited resources, you should make sure your success is not impeded by bureaucracy.

If you have a choice of location, then try to find out where you can locate your organization. If not, focus on working within your region's legal maze.

Get help, not rhetoric

Starting up? In most places, you are not alone. You can choose what you will have - rhetoric or real help. Nowadays, I see hundreds of formal and informal organizations crop up everywhere - ranging from meaningful non profits to informal online groups. Not all the advise you hear is right, relevant or good, but you can filter through the messages with enough effort. I have posted about a couple in the past and as and when I find relevant groups I will post them here. I am sure a web search will turn up more resources elsewhere as well.

3. The long term - what can you do?

Whether you succeed or fail, there is something that happens every 2 - 4 years (and if you are in other parts of the world, the message about bureaucracy still holds) - we call them elections. Make sure that you send a very clear message to your Congressperson, the state legislators, the mayors and councilors that your vote and the vote of like-minded entrepreneurs hinges on them making some real changes to "business as usual". This is so much better than empty rhetoric!

4. Who changes the world?

For every Gandhi (and yes, I have immeasurable respect for him) there are silent masses that followed them, motivated them and supplemented them to move the world forward. So it is indeed entrepreneurs and individual businesses that dictate change, not governments small or large or the parties that steal votes from them...so go out there and make those changes!

5. Read, read and read some more. This is the best way to keep yourself up to date on all that is going on around you - new law, new regulations and even stuff that people pull because they are insensitive to your difficulties. Since you are a small business owner, you don't have an army of lawyers to identify what affects you and what doesn't. So, prepare!

Reference:

http://ij.org/citystudies

You must be living in a cave disconnected from the internet, "smart" phones and Government paranoia, if you haven't heard of "DIY"bio...the new movement where citizens create fluorescent cats, third arms and pet Homo zombius'es...(there may be people trying to do these things, but this is not what the DIYBio movement is about, but hey, since logic and commonsense are not essential to our politicians or to those who do very little to serve or protect us..)

What is DIYBio?

Most revolutions in human science and society took off with home-grown innovations. While Kings commissioned large sums of money and bounties, it took James Watt with his steam engine, the Wright brothers with their flight, and the Curies with their home-grown chemistry lab (I mean literally, the innovation of a century in radiology was cooked up by the Curies working their asses off in a shack offered up by skeptical University folks). And then we have the perennial "garage start up" dream...so much so that now we have a company named "Willow Garage".

Yet, one field had lacked this spunk - enter a bunch of hitherto disparate folks trying to do a "garage" bio or life-science company. Like so many people blind to this, it took a report of Government paranoia (suits showing up at people incubating eggs and so on), I learned about the group through a string or articles that just multiplied the story to create a din loud enough for me to sit up and pay attention.

Since then, of course I have joined the groups, watched our local DIYBio group , "BioCurious" gain funding pledges and I have generally been enjoying the fraternity of research.

The essential idea, globally and locally is to cause revolutions in the life sciences that promote both basic research and cures. This spans the gamut, ranging from fundamental biology to genetics and personalized medicine!

Of course, there is more, however, I am not going to write a pompous essay - just visit the links at the end of this post to learn more about the DIYBio movement!

Bangalore DIYBio:

Localization is important to invite new people into the fore, get the intimidation and information overloads that the 21st century has wrought on us down to an acceptable level and allow for explosive growth. While local groups have been popping up everywhere, the Bangalore group, as far as I can tell, is a first for India. Congratulations to Deepan Chakravarthy for starting the group!

There is a lot of programming talent in India. I am sure the lifesciences in various forms are also attracting enough attention. Consequentially, I hope that this group can bring these folks together, locally in India.

The value of collective bargaining

When I first came to the US as a graduate student (and even a little before that), one of the clear causes for such success in the US became quite self-evident: "associations", "societies" and the whole lot.

Of course, there are times when groups such as NFIB and Advamed are up to no go..ahem, hmm, let's go back to the main topic.

Individually, it would be so hard for folks to do things. By grouping together, we can motivate each other, share ideas, and present forums that can be societal, technical and as it seems to be quite necessary with most endeavors nowadays, political as well!

India does have quite a handful of associations and societies. However, a lot more need to come up. I saw a handful pop up - HeadStart, the local barcamp groups, the OCC or Open Coffee Club groups and so on. With a population continuously hungry to put India on the 21st century map, I think such associations including the DIYBio Bangalore group, that may currently look small and frail are doing their job.

So my question to you: Do you have a DIY-Anything group locally?

Especially, do you have a DIYBio group that is local to where you live? If so, have you joined and contributed? How about starting one if it is necessary?

Do-It-Yourself-er, with a lot of friends, it's easy!

Setting up a new group is not tough. Here are a few things you could do to get started:

1. Find out if you have folks interested in starting one. Join the diybio group (link at the end of the post, I promise). Ask who else is working on "bio" stuff locally.

2. Find out if there are local Universities that have folks doing the same thing. Attend lectures, go to meetings and chat people up.

3. Simply start a group - then blog, tweet, holler and draft your friends as volunteers (that's right!) to either join, or get the word out.

4. Conduct simple meetings, demos, educational events - there is a lot on the playbook that the folks who have already done it at Biocurious and other organizations that can talk to you about - reach out!

So, let's get to some resources.

Resources

1. The DIYbio Google Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/diybio

2. DIYBio website:

http://diybio.org/

3. Find local DIYBio Groups:

http://diybio.org/local/

4. The Bangalore DIYBio Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/diybio-bangalore

5. DIYBio on Grouply:

http://diybio.grouply.com/

Preface: Again, I apologize to everyone for the paucity in posts. As some of you might know, I have been working incessantly on a project and that has kept me from being able to gain any traction on blogging here. As the blogging gets tougher, I have decided to add a tweet specific to the blog so that I can still share quick updates on devices and such.

You can follow "devicology" on twitter:

Of course, there are not many tweets there yet, but watch the space for more.

Looking for innovative ideas?

Ideas, they say are dime a dozen. Well, who is to say what the current exchange rate is? If you are looking at a start-up or even a project that needs you to design a device, a mechanism, a set of mechanisms and/or processes and methods, you need innovative ideas. Many times you need to be innovative to beat your competition, and sometimes, simply because the solution demands creative thinking.

But, how do we get good ideas? Some people seem to have a practiced way of getting to ideas, so is "ideation" something that you are born with?

Wrong!

Brainstorming!

Brainstorming is the best way to open up your creativity and come up with innovative ideas for your projects, your companies and so on.

While there are many opinions floating around, the baseline is simple - encourage creativity and "out of the box" thinking, do not judge while the session is still on and do not "direct" the meeting.

Of course, I have a few other ideas that I would like to throw in - keep the topics broad first, narrow them later, or in later sessions, provide avenues for creative exploration through colors, toys and such, and feed your people!

Brainstorming is an exercise - so the more you train appropriately that is, the better you can get at it. Take it from me, I have seen this lead project ideas to great success in many different situations - this is the point of the workshop - practice, exercise!

Set at the Crossroads Cafe in San Francisco on September 13, 2010 thanks to the efforts of Eri Gentry, the founder of BioCurious ( http://biocurious.org/index.php?title=Main_Page ), we will discuss the rules for a couple of minutes, brainstorm a broad topic as a group exercise and then given enough interest, we will break into smaller groups and discuss further topics.

Here is the link for the event:

http://www.meetup.com/BioCurious/calendar/14576734/

I hope you can join us!

About BioCurious:

BioCurious is THE DIYBio group for Silicon Valley and in general, the Bay Area. Currently the group is seeking funding to find a near permanent home. You can find out more about them here:

Yours truly's previous FDA regulation class and pitch appear in the video as well...

Preface: Once again, I have to apologize for not being able to blog here, and this time it involves travel to the Seattle area, but I hope to get on my feet soon.

Introduction: I have signed up to receive updates from the local Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Today, she forwarded me this set of rights, billed as, so to speak, "The Healthcare bill of rights". I thought it is fairly important for anyone involved in healthcare to go through them, so I am going to share them with you.

Oh, and these are the rights that the Republicans and the Tea Party would like to repeal, just so you know.

* Your health coverage cannot be arbitrarily cancelled.
The new law prohibits insurance plans from rescinding your coverage when you get sick, except in cases of fraud or an intentional misrepresentation of facts. (Applies to all insurance plans.)

* Your child cannot be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
Insurance plans are prohibited from both denying coverage and limiting benefits for children based on a pre-existing condition. This applies to all employer plans and new individual plans.

* Your health plan cannot put a lifetime limit on your health coverage.
The new law outlaws lifetime limits. No longer will a family go broke or lose their home just because a loved one has an accident or becomes ill. This applies to all insurance plans.

* Your health plan’s annual limits will phase out.
Over the next three years, the new law phases out annual limits ensuring that the coverage of hundreds of thousands of Americans will no longer be cut off right when they need it most. This applies to all employer plans and new individual plans.

* Your child can stay on your health plan up to age 26.
Insurance plans that offer family coverage will be required to allow young people up to their 26th birthday to remain on their parents’ insurance plan, at the parent’s choice. This applies to young people who do not have access to their own employer-sponsored coverage.

* You have the right to choose your own doctor.
Patients are guaranteed their choice of primary care doctor within their plan’s network of doctors, including OB-GYNs and pediatricians without a referral. This applies to new plans.

* You have the right to access out-of-network emergency room care.
Insurance plans will not be able to charge higher cost-sharing for emergency services that are obtained outside of a plan’s network. This applies to new plans.

* You have the right to appeal denied coverage.
Insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage for needed care without a chance to appeal to an independent third party. This applies to new plans.

Commentary: Essentially, I think this is a good set of rights and a good start. It will help coverage, and increase revenues for medical device companies, regardless of what Advamed would like to have you believe. In the long run, this will serve as a model of comparison for developing nations trying to implement healthcare reform.

Of course, post elections we will see some cheesy attempts to repeal the law, more display of testosterone and so on...until next time!