Social Entrepreneurship Still Thriving
I continue to see stories on the topic of social entrepreneurship in the news. In a time when people are as concerned with the social impact of their spending as they are with what they are spending on, social entrepreneurship is the way that all can benefit. And there are so many examples of great socially focused companies. One company that many people are familiar with is Toms shoes. For every pair of shoes purchased from them they donate a pair of shoes to someone in need. Samasource is another great example. They provide outsourced computer work to women and children in some of the highest poverty areas of the world.
What these companies all have in common is their unwillingness to separate the good of society from their own goals. This is going to be the future of entrepreneurship and the way we will solve many of the world’s problems. By relying on our society’s most innovative people, we will be able to help those around the world who need it while we also strengthen our economies.
A passion of mine is finding ways to use technology to impact billions in poor parts of the world. My hope is to use artificial intelligence software that can be deployed on an android tablet. This device can be used by a normal village person to diagnosis common diseases. That’s why I chose to fund the Digital Doctor X PRIZE Challenge. A video of my vision for project is here, and this article gives further insight.
What is the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE?
I encourage all of you to read about the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE. This X PRIZE encourages entrepreneurs and innovators to build a device that can allow a user to make diagnoses without having to visit a doctor or hospital. Imagine a portable, wireless device that can diagnose diseases in remote areas of the world.
Read the full description below, which comes from the official website:
The Prize: Empowering Personal Healthcare
The Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE is a $10 million global competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making reliable health diagnoses available directly to “health consumers” in their homes.
The dire need for improvements in health and healthcare in the U.S. has captured the attention of government, industry, and private citizens for years. But a viable solution has yet evaded one of the most technologically advanced, educated and prosperous nations on the globe. Integrated diagnostic technology, once available on a consumer mobile device that is easy to use, will allow individuals to incorporate health knowledge and decision-making into their daily lives.
Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team whose technology most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility, and that provides the best consumer user experience with their device.
The Instrument Itself
As envisioned for this competition, the device will be a tool capable of capturing key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases. Metrics for health could include such elements as blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature. Ultimately, this tool will collect large volumes of data from ongoing measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements.
Given that each team will take its own approach to design and functionality, the device’s physical appearance and functionality may vary immensely from team to team. Indeed, the only stated limit on form is that the mass of its components together must be no greater than five pounds. But because an important part of the qualifying round will be evaluating consumer experience in using it, the limitations set by this competition will force teams to make choices. Teams will have to consider tradeoffs amongst weight, functionality, power requirements, battery life, screen resolution, AI engine location, diagnosis capability, end consumer cost, and so on.
Beyond the weight requirement, there is no limit as to how many discrete components constitute a viable solution. For example, teams may use sensors that are attached to a phone-like control unit, fastened individually to the consumer, or kept apart and reserved for occasional use or home monitoring. Similarly, teams may create a tool that has a large screen, a small screen, or perhaps even no screen (audio only). Systems must include a way for consumers to store and share their information, which must be accessible remotely via the Internet. Additionally, teams are expected to follow guidelines and protocols that help ensure that consumer safety is held in the highest regard. This includes avoiding harm from electrical energy, thermal energy, chemical exposures, needles, lancets, and infection.
The Need for the Prize
In virtually every industry, end consumer needs drive advances and improvements. Except in healthcare. Very few methods exist for consumers to receive direct medical care without seeing a healthcare professional at a clinic or hospital, creating an access bottleneck. Despite substantial investment to improve the status quo, even average levels of service, efficiency, affordability, accessibility, and satisfaction remain out of reach for many whom the system was intended to help. A prize is thus sorely needed.
In response to this widespread need, the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE will:
- Address the dual challenge of a) transforming healthcare by turning the “art” of medicine into a science, and b) making health a willing part of individuals’ daily lives.
- Tackle needed breakthroughs in sensing technologies, technological integration, regulatory acceptance, and the perception that healthcare should be controlled by only a few skilled parties.
- Incentivize teams to focus on a) precision diagnosis and measurement that is independent of healthcare institutions/professionals and on b) consumer needs/adoption.
- Facilitate necessary partnerships and regulatory pathways required for this major transformation.
- Inspire a future where consumers demand the tools to assess and manage their health independent of a hospital or doctor’s office.
- Spark the creation of markets and products that offer medical detection, prevention, and management, as well as more complete diagnostics.
Your Personal Gene Map for Just $1,000
In 1990 the U.S. government launched The Human Genome Project. In 2007 the first commercial reading of it became available. Now, a new scientific and entrepreneurial development lets you map your genes for just $1,000.
With this technology, a person’s genetic code could be used to prevent and treat diseases. You can find out your risks of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, and other health issues. Imagine what it will do for diagnostic and drug testing.
The California-based genomics company, Life Technologies Corp. plans to make genome mapping machine available by the end of 2012.
Read the WSJ article here.
Neuroscience’s Most Perplexing Riddle: Consciousness
Every day in the US 60,000 patients go undergo general anesthesia, but what happens to the brain during this process is somewhat a mystery. Neuroscientists are digging deeper into understanding consciousness and they hope their findings will transform anesthesia from a solely clinical tool into a powerful instrument for studying the most basic questions about the brain.
Understanding what happens to the brain under anesthetic drugs could lead to novel treatments for coma and other brain conditions—and to insights into fundamental questions in neuroscience, including the nature of consciousness itself.
Read more here.
Social Media and the Trust Continuum: The Haves and Want-Nots
There is a growing dichotomy of social media users today. In one camp, sit those who consume social media voraciously. They check in via FourSquare, tweet ravenously, have more than 1,000 Facebook friends and indeed, their Klout scores are a source of great pride. In the other camp, sit those who avoid social outlets at all costs. They don’t want people to know where they are nor what they are doing and they certainly do not want to put their name online for others to abuse with reckless abandon. The driving force in both of these communities – and those in between – is trust.
The explosion of data coupled with an abundance of user-generated content is creating new issues of trust and unchecked culpability. While social media has enriched millions of lives and entrenched itself throughout much of our society, there is an even larger group of individuals who feel overwhelmed, confused and in many cases frightened by the potential prospects of sharing too much about themselves online.
Driven by the omnipresence of social media and an abundance of data shared by others, individuals are often led to believe that there is little they can do to manage what is said about them online, much less counter or rectify inaccurate information. In many respects, social media has become both a blessing and a curse. It fosters tremendous interconnectivity, relationships and constant communications, but also presents some difficult challenges. Therein lies the trust continuum.
The hard truth is: If you are not managing your online identity, someone else can and will. Regardless of one’s proclivity to be heavily engaged in social media or sit on the sidelines, we all deserve an online reputation that matches our true self. We need to empower individuals with the information and tools they need to make personal and professional decisions with peace of mind.
As individuals are given greater control over how they are presented online, the balance of power shifts greatly in their favor, and their trust in social outlets is likely to increase. Society has changed dramatically as the majority of our relationships are now built and fostered online. It’s up to each of us to take the power back.
Here’s an Idea: Fuel Innovation and Entrepreneurialism With Incentivized Pricing
We need to begin taking meaningful actions to spur economic growth in this country. The heart of the American development and economic prosperity lies squarely in our ability to innovate.
However, the truth is that the process by which innovation occurs can be risky, expensive and often fruitless. Often, the inside view of executives, developers and marketing professionals can be completely myopic, devoid of the creative, breakthrough (and yes, executable) thinking that a company needs to make a difference.
The most efficient, cost-effective way to innovate is through incentivized pricing – a process by which payment is offered following the development of the breakthrough idea. There is no challenge too large for the world’s great minds to create a solution to rectify it. So why not pose today’s great challenges to the world’s great minds? Certainly, there is someone in Slovenia or Serbia, Memphis or Malaysia, who can create the next big idea to solve many of today’s most vexing problems – from hunger and disease diagnosis to environmental sustainability and educational breakthroughs.
By incentivizing people around the world to execute on big ideas, we can foster innovation and drive advancements that will boost economic activity throughout the United States.
There are no barriers to incentivized pricing, and yet most businesses rarely look outside their workforce for solutions to their biggest problems. There is something to be said about being on the outside, looking in. We can positively expand our outlook on many fronts by incentivizing others to truly come up with something special, regardless of their status, location or resources.
Incentivized pricing is entrepreneurialism in action and I am thrilled to see this type of entrepreneurial thinking on display at this week’s D.C. Entrepreneurship Week. We can empower people all around the world – particularly those who don’t sit within the glass walls of today’s traditional enterprises – to innovate and create solutions for big problems. As entrepreneurs, we want to knock down these invisible, unnecessary barriers and involve countless individuals and teams that can contribute a great deal.
Study: Strangers Can Spot ‘Kindness’ Gene
People with a certain gene trait are known to be more kind and caring than people without it, and strangers can quickly tell the difference, according to US research published on Monday. The variation is linked to the body’s receptor gene of oxytocin.
Scientists at Oregon State University devised an experiment in which 23 couples, whose genotypes were known to researchers but not observers, were filmed. Read more about the study here.
Entrepreneurially Speaking… You Can Be Self Made in America
Next week, I will be joining with innovators and job creators from 115 countries and 24,000+ partner organizations at the Future of Entrepreneurship Education Summit. The FEE Summit’s credo is to “bring ideas to life, drive economic growth, and expand human welfare.”
Read more here.
Curing an Incurable Form of Blindness
Credit: Jarrod Thacker
Doctors at the Oxford Eye Hospital in Britain conducted the first ever gene treatment that makes use of DNA to correct an incurable form of blindness. The procedure was done for a 63-year old man, leading to hopes that the treatment could be used to cure millions of blind people across the world. The procedure was conducted by researchers from Oxford University who used the treatment to overcome the effects of choroideraemia, a condition in which leads to degeneration of light sensitive lenses due to a missing gene.
Read more here.
Awesome Displays of 3D Printing
3D printing can do some amazing things. Already, it can print tools with moveable parts and even human skin. In 3D printing, a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. See video of some of these printing displays here.