Week 6- The BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and the Biomedical Sciences: Past, Present, Future

During this session we talked about how BioBusiness has changed the world that we live in today. As defined by prof, BioBusiness is the commercial application of the activities of life and life sciences. During the session, we focused on how BioBusiness have revolutionised the healthcare and Biomedical industry.


We were introduced to the concept of future healthcare systems with the viewing of a video. The video showed how a patient could interact with her doctor via the TV, and how the doctor can monitor the patient's hormone levels from the comfort of his clinic via a technological device. The patient could also purchased medicine that has been prescribed to her off the shelf, with no further need to see any additonal pharmacist. As prof mentioned, one of the greatest issues about healthcare is the long waiting time faced by patients. With the introduction of these innovations, we can clearly say that the waiting time would be cut down and this would lead to greater productivity in our healthcare industry. The issue now lies with integrating whatever technology is already out there and overcoming the regulations, if any that might hamper the innovation process.


One key takeaway from this lesson would be the startling fact that 5% of the world's population in USA are using 50% of the world's healthcare. USA's healthcare system creates what we call a moral hazard- when people use more than what they really need. This is due to the fact that Americans who are insured pays large amounts of health insurance, thus when they fall sick, it is human nature to maximise their benefit and use as much as they can. 


With non communicable diseases on the rise in society today, healthcare systems are increasingly becoming inefficient and thus, there is a need to innovate to ensure sustainability.


-One practice would be the increasing use of wellness and disease management. This helps to decrease the number of people who are falling sick and thus there is less pressure on the world's healthcare systems. 


-The use of nutraceuticals, essentially meaning food with benefits would help to enhance our total well being. There is an increasing awareness in society today on eating the right foods. Berries are full of antioxidants while carrots have beta carotene. The consumption of dietary supplements are also on the rise as one small pill can come packed with lots of vitamins and minerals, enough to meet our daily requirements.


-Another future innovation would involve what was describe in the video earlier in this post. With tele-medicine and automatic dispensaries, the waiting time in the healthcare system today would be greatly reduced. Patients can get diagnosis and prescriptions from the comfort of their home and the medicine can be dispensed to them without the need for another third party like a pharmacist or cashier!


Biobusiness has also been widely used in the Biomedical science industry. Insulin can be produced outside our body synthetically and can be injected into our system if our bodies fail to produce enough insulin. 


Many drug companies invest heavily in R&D to come out with new drugs to treat diseases. Once a successful drug has been produced, it can earn a patent and the drug company is able to reap the profits buy selling it en masse to society. However, this is a risky business, I learnt that less than 5% of the drugs researched on would actually succeed and earn a patent. Our discussion in class then led to the debate about whether pharmaceutical companies should sell drugs cheaply as developing countries are in need of the drugs as well. A win-win situation would entail licencing countries to produce the drugs cheaply but constricted them to sell it only in their country. This way, developing countries are allowed access to the drugs that they need while the pharmaceutical giants are still able to earn profits from the drugs.


One interesting reading we had was the article about disruptive change in healthcare. It is sad to see that many institutions and doctors are resistant to change because of the selfish reason of protecting one's security. For example, nurses are not allowed to administer drugs and patients have to wait for doctors to administer and prescribe them to their patients. This serves to be more costly and time-inefficient. What we need to do is embrace disruptive change and in turn, doctors should disrupt the higher levels in the medicine industry, for example, specialists.


Some key takeaways from the presentations by my classmates include the availability of counterfeit drugs in the market as shared by veronica. I am astonished that there is actually a demand for these drugs as it is very clear that these are detrimental to our health, and no matter how cheap this drugs are, they can never replace our health. To me, this is an example of using health to get wealth.


On the other hand, Kara shared about organ transplant and that there is a presence of an organ black market in our world today. In this case, this is an example of using wealth to get health. People in developed countries are willing to pay large amounts of money for a kidney, in the hope that the new kidney might help extend their life.


This lesson has been an enriching one and I am looking forward to next week where we go into the agriculture and farming industry. I felt however, that we could have talked more about specific innovations in the medical industry that came about through life sciences. For example, 3D printing of blood vessels are now being carried out and there is a possibility that organs might be generated from 3D printing in the future. Overall, I would give this lesson a 9/10.




Lenard

Week 5- ICT and World Change

This session explored an area of technology that I think most of us have been familiar and heavily involved in. ICT! The lesson started off with a quote:

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human”  

-John Naisbitt –

In my opinion, this is rather true. Considering the video we watched about Project Natal, future technology would most probably involve us interacting with avatars that are not in the real world. The challenge that this form of technology would face would be the question about ethics. What does it mean to be a human? Would society accept the virtual avatars that could possibly make our lives more convenient? I know this sounds weird, but what if we fall in love with our avatars?

Personally, I feel that the idea of virtual avatars in our daily lives is still rather avant-garde and only time will tell if society accepts it. For now, I am only comfortable with interacting with them in a game but not in my daily life.

We also talked about how mass media has developed over time. It is essentially, media that reaches the masses. From smoke signals in the ancient days to the news and social media, we have come a long way. There is a wealth of information available in the media and our sources of media have moved from "one to many" to "many to many" with the introduction of sites like Twitter and Facebook. 

There is now real time updating of information and there is much more response from the masses! I do not have to search the internet if I want to find out the results of the latest soccer match. By logging in to my Facebook account and monitoring my news feed, I am able to get real time information from my die hard soccer friends out there.

The Internet has been rapidly developing from Web 1.0, where static information was given out, to Web 2.0 where the users generate the content, to Web 3.0 where the computer generates information for us. As spoken by prof, Web 3.0 would make our lives simpler in an unobtrusive way. I am very excited by what capabilities Web 3.0 possess and can't wait for the full potential of it to be unleashed! 

With the invention of the internet, cloud computing has become readily accessible to everyone. Little do we realise that we have been cloud users all this while! When we open our email, access the schools e learning website and use dropbox, on our various devices, we are constant tapping onto the cloud system of shared information. I learnt that cloud computing reduces the start up costs of business, and this would increase competition as more businesses are available and customers have more products and services to choose from. 

Companies now have chief knowledge officers to manage knowledge in the company. We first acquire information from data that makes sense, and knowledge refers to the application of information in the company and working environment that we are in. There is an increasing need to manage intellectual property, and it is important for companies to claim their know how, know what, and know who. It would be unwise to leave the entire knowledge of the company to a few key individuals as ones loyalty can never be trusted.

Along with the advantages of ICT come disadvantages as well. With the vast network and far reaching effects of ICT, espionage and invasion of privacy is highly possible in our society. It is therefore important that we learn to privatize the content we upload and share on the internet. Hackers have also used technology to their advantage, with the recent phone hacking scandal by News of the World, which is the most famous case of hacking we know today. There is also a danger of exposure to corrupting influences and unsuspecting users of the internet might fall prey to online fraud as well as pornography addiction. In my opinion, one of the solutions that we can use to counter this problem is to educate the public to increase their awareness of these issues and raise up avenues to cure addiction to online vices.

Andrea shared about the use of social media in times of social unrest, and highlighted that riots were exacerbated by the rioters use of social media as a means of communication to create more unrest. In the discussion, I felt that it was necessary for the government to step in to censor media in times of success. One might argue that this is taking away our rights and affecting our social lives but I feel that it is for the benefit of the whole society to censor media when the need arises and monitor media to safeguard the peace and stability of our country.

Rebecca shared about the rise of e books such as Amazon's Kindle and a very comprehensive discussion followed. Would e books replace conventional books completely in the near future? In my opinion, there still remains a need for conventional books, like cookbooks! Conventional books to me would serve as a better keepsake then e books, though i don't discount the fact that e books have many benefits. It is less bulky, and definitely more energy saving! With e books, forests are saved as there are less trees being cut down, and energy is saved as there are less transport costs! I am waiting to see how much a role e books will play in our society in the future!

I felt that we could have discussed more about future communication technologies- the super computer, 3 in 1 devices combining the television, computer and handphone into a single device, or maybe communication to other people through the projections of holograms. Overall, this session was very thought provoking and the discussions were in depth. I would rate this lesson a 9/10.

Lenard

Individual Topical Review Paper Outline (Draft 1)

My individual topical review paper would be on the invention of Digital Photography and how it has changed our lives from the times when we only had access to film photography. 


Feel free to comment on this outline and suggest possible improvements to this paper. :)


Specific innovation of interest: 
The invention of Digital Photography, defined as a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film. (Wikipedia) The image is then stored digitally for later reproduction. (The free dictionary.com)


Rationale for Selecting this Innovation:
-This single innovation led to a new market for digital products and digital cameras, with many more advantages, became more attractive than film cameras 
-Digital photography served as a catalyst for many other inventions (HD, 3-D imaging), moving forward into the future, there are many possibilities of how this would develop more innovations


Executive Summary
This paper discusses the impacts that digital photography has in our world today and contrasts it to the time when we only had film photography. It outlines the clear advantages of digital photography and looks at the future potential of this technology in this industry.


Background/ Introduction
-How digital photography works in digital cameras
-How digital cameras have captured a large market share vs film cameras since its inception


Historical Perspective
-How the world was like with film cameras
-Long waiting time to view image captured, no possibility of editing pictures, large size of film cameras (Disadvantages of film cameras)
-Price of film and developing- additional cost for every new photo taken


Current Situation
-Digital photographs could be archived, edited, viewed on the spot, transmitted from device to device, and created using photo imaging software 
- Higher photo quality, more flexibility and more applications for use together with other devices (in handphones, computers, UAVs and satellites )
-Film photography is still a current niche market in our society (Vintage cameras and instant camera- Polaroid)
-Disadvantages and ethical considerations of digital photography (Invasion of privacy, use in social media)
- 3D film technology and HD recording


Future Considerations
-Rise of cloud technology- could digital photography do away with storage devices in the future?
-New products- 3D camera/ Touchscreen camera / Holographic camera
-Could Digital photography be made obsolete with a new type of photography? (another disruptive change)


Conclusions
-Digital photography has been a disruptive change and film industries have been forced to adapt to these changes by creating a niche market for film cameras
-As technology is so rapidly advancing, we would be seeing smaller and better cameras in the industries with many different kinds of editing software to manipulate images. The possibilities are endless
-Are regulations needed to prevent the abuse of digital photography?


References

Week 4- Drivers of world change / Change management and leadership

The week's session started with the video of "Who moved my cheese". Though simple and rather cartoon-ish,  the video serves to remind us of the principle that change is the only constant in life. Although the world is full of uncertainties (like the maze in the video), the winner is the one who is willing to venture out of the comfort zone to adapt to the changes occurring in our world today.

I remember that in my very first blog entry I asked the question whether world change would create a demand for new technology to be created. In this lesson we explored what are the drivers of world change and what could we do to adapt to those changes. When changes occur, we need to direct it as well as manage the change.

As the world progresses through history, there would be certain drivers that would cause world change. In my opinion, here are a few key takeaways:

Globalisation- As our world becomes more interconnected, businesses that used to do well might face competition from other companies all over the world. The key is to constantly innovate and think about the future needs of our society to stay in the game. As corporations now have access to cheap labour, an individual has to constantly upgrade the skills he has to remain relevant in the workforce.

Resources and energy- An increase in worldwide consumption patterns is leading towards a large amount of finite resources and energy being consumed. This change calls for technological innovation to develop new and sustainable energy sources for the world.

Multipolar system- The world is now seeing a shift of economic power and country growth from the east to the west. China and India and en route to becoming the world's leading economies. There might be a shift of power to these countries and other countries might be more willing to emulate their political systems. 

Change can also be classified into two main categories. Evolutionary or Revolutionary.

Evolution becomes Revolution

Evolutionary changes to me, are gradual changes over time that we can adapt to easily due to their gradual nature. Revolutionary changes as defined by prof; are disruptive changes that are irreversible in our expected future. Disruptive changes can make or break an organisation. Those that survive are able to adapt to that change.

Tiffany then talked about global change in her presentation, including environmental factors like global warming and rising sea levels. This might lead to high food prices due to a low supply of food. In our world today, it is important to have an increased amount of participation by the government and regulatory bodies to help curb the effects of climate change.

Huipin talked about mass media being a driver of world change. I thought that it was a refreshing perspective relevant to our society today. Mass media empowers the masses and there is less censorship with mass media. She shared about how an individual could take on a corporation via the video below. Dave Carroll's guitar was damaged due to careless baggage handling on a United Airlines flight. There was no settlement that was agreed to by the airline and in response, Dave wrote this song and posted it online. Talk about being creative!

We then discussed about being a leader in our world today. As mentioned in class, a leader creates the framework, while a manager ensures that the framework is achieved. I think that in our world today, managers can become leaders and vice versa.


We were introduced to another interesting analogy today. Organisations can be eagles and view things from a birds eye view. Looking towards the needs of the future, they are flying high compared to the others. An ostrich refuses to recognise change and sinks its head into the ground to remain in oblivion. A dodo refuses to adapt to change and it is not before long before it becomes extinct.


One key takeaway is that we should embrace change and not avoid it. Change allows us to better ourselves and have new experiences that we have never had before. As quoted by Abraham Lincoln, " The best way to predict the future is to create it!"


Yao Zong talked about how Microsoft failed to streamline the performance and innovation department which led to them being less adaptable to change, unlike Apple whose management were constantly kept in the loop. Kenneth also talked about Germany's plan to embrace change by moving away from nuclear energy and towards more sustainable energy sources, even though much time and infrastructure have already been dedicated towards nuclear energy.


I felt that we could have discussed more about how companies manage and direct change. It would be interesting to know how the concepts of change management and leadership are applied in the corporate world today. I would rate this lesson a 7/10. 


Lenard

Week 3 - Sustainable Development and Innovation Management

Before attending this class, I used to perceive that technology was all about complicated gadgets and systems that help to make our lives easier. I was wrong. As prof mentioned and reiterated during this lesson, technology is about applying what you know, and it is all around us! The food we eat, the music we play and the songs we listen to, the clothes we wear, the typing of this blog entry, the Masterchef episode I just watched on TV just now... these are all examples of technology! This is one of my key takeaways and I will definitely be looking at my world through a different lens now.

The day's lesson started with the continuation of 2 presentations from last week with regards to Technology and Human Innovation. Kirene shared with us about men's propensity to create war technology in the name of "defense" and the author of the article felt that is was unnecessary to develop this kind of technology. I understand the need for defense (especially in the context of Singapore) but in our world today, strength is king and it is human nature to be the strongest and most powerful.  Yun Ting continued with her article on surrogacy and I am personally not against surrogacy if a couple is infertile. However, as Yun Ting shared, it is sad to know that some people are starting to look at this as a way of making money and are even going to an extent of creating a baby even before the parents are found. (This would mean adoption rather than surrogation) This is a classic example in which technology was first created for the right reasons but have been misused due to the greed of men.

The discussion on sustainable development kicked off by a screening of a video called the story of stuff. What really sank into me was the fact that we were using a linear system to run on a finite planet. Simple but true. The fossil fuels and raw materials that we have are all limited and we need to learn to manage our resources for the future generations. 

Simply defined: 

Sustainable development is choosing options to take care of your needs but ensuring the same options are still available to future generations.

Industrialisation has indeed brought about massive growth in many developing countries. They benefit from the "advantages of backwardness" through knowledge and rent spillovers and also the increased amount of productivity means less labour costs and higher profits. It is also more possible to meet the millennium development goals for these countries as there is a greater access to education and healthcare, as well as a lower level of poverty and higher levels of employment. 

However, industrialisation has brought about environment problems as well. As shown in the video, America has 5% of the world's population but they are using 30% of the world's resources. A loss of natural resources, pollution, as well as global warming are just of the few problems that industrialisation has caused. 

In my opinion, I feel that education and increasing public awareness is one of the most effective methods to encourage sustainable development. People are more influenced to use less, and buy from companies that are practicing green technology. One drawback though is that the products might be more expensive. Another good method that the EU has come out with is the integrated product policy. This takes into account the entire life cycle of a product and aims to improve the overall environmental performance of the product. 

Samatha's presentation highlighted the project in Abu Dhabi called Masdar City. Before this presentation, I never knew this project existed, but I must say that this is a good start in moving towards sustainable development. This city aims to use only half the amount of energy than that of a normal city. It has a wide array of interesting features like a comprehensive transport system and this city will be without cars! People will be travelling in PRTs instead- personal rapid transits. I would be waiting for the completion of this project and would love to visit this place someday! 

Our next discussion involved the topic of Innovation Management and it was interesting to know how technology achievement could be measured via the Technology Achievement Index. (TAI) The TAI takes into account a few factors such as patents issued, the percentage of internet hosts as well as telephone usage and electricity consumption. This is similar to the Human Development Index that we discussed during the previous session. Surprisingly, Singapore is considered a leader but China is only considered a dynamic adopter. I guess one of the reasons why technology innovation in China is low is that there is a low need for innovation and productivity as China has a large amount of labour supply.

Prof also discussed his views about the entire innovation process of RDA- research, development and application. One key takeaway point that I have would be that creativity is only the beginning of the long process of innovation. The thinking of a idea or concept is dependent on ones creativity but innovation only comes in when the concept can be applied to our daily lives. Prof also shared about the valley, summit and cloud analogy. We talked about how corporations can be in a valley if they do not innovate, and with successful innovation one can be in the summit, while certain companies are in the cloud if they are dealing with technological innovation rather than market driven innovation. Tech innovation essentially involves creating something that the market has no demand for, and subsequently convincing the market that it is useful for them. This involves a high cost as R&D needs to be done, and there is a certain risk factor involved as there is a chance that the market will not buy your idea. To me, it is important for companies not to be complacent, as although they may hit the summit, they might still go down to the valley as there is always competition in any industry. 

Zhao Qi talked about how 3M used to be a dominant player and a falling star but now it attempts to be a rising star again. One thing I felt that was rather interesting was that the employees were given their own free time during work to flex their own creative muscles and think of new innovations that we could use in society. Matthias shared about how a China is emphasizing on the development on green technology and I think that it is heartening to know that China is the number one user of green technology in the world. His discussion points also included the topic about foreign talent in Singapore, and I agree with prof's view that foreign talent may be allowed in Singapore as it brings about many benefits, including employment and it may help to boost the economy, however, it is equally important that the foreign companies also transfer their skills and knowledge to our society so that we are self sufficient in the future.

This lesson was very informative and I have learnt a lot. I feel that one area that we could have discussed on would be on recycling. Recycling would transfer the linear system of production to a cyclical one and think that it is important to recycle in our society today. I would rate this lesson 8/10.

Lenard

The Tweeting Fridge

The Tweeting Fridge from Simone Santos on Vimeo.

I posted this on the Facebook page about a week ago. Interesting how Twitter can remind us to drink water!

Lenard