1. Emerging Edges Consultants Pvt Ltd.
Disruptive Technologies in
Healthcare
Padmaja Krishnan
December 2015
padmaja.krishnan@emergingedges.com
2. Emerging Edges Consultants Pvt Ltd.
“One must learn by doing, for though you
think you know it, you have no certainty
until you do it.”
- Aristotle
Born in 384 BC, Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher and Scientist
in the Macedonian city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of
Classical Greece
3. Emerging Edges Consultants Pvt Ltd.
Healthcare is an Ancient Science
In 1000 BC, the only early test for
diabetes was whether urine
attracted ants
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Developments in
Science & Technology
have revolutionized Healthcare
and a highly specialized Vertical
known as
Healthcare Industry
is growing
Rapidly
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Consumer Perspectives
• The healthcare industry has complex medical
ecosystem
• Slow to adopt innovations
• The pace of New Technologies is impacting our
everyday lives at lightning speeds
• People get used to technology easily: For 30% of
average urban population their phone is the first thing
and last thing they look at everyday :
• Technologies can enable Healthcare to offer cheaper,
faster and more efficient patient care than ever before
• Fast innovations in technology is causing fast changes
and disruptions in Healthcare
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Consumer Perspectives
• When care is complex, expensive and
inconvenient, many afflictions simply go
untreated
• If consumers and providers are given equal
choices, the use of disruptive technologies will
help those applications that can create value
for both
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Consumer Perspectives
• Healthcare Industry leaders should work with
insurers, regulators, managed care
organizations, hospitals and health
professionals to facilitate disruption, instead
of uniting to prevent it
• Instead of working to preserve the existing
methods, healthcare industry should enable
the disruptive innovations to evolve and help
in the process of healthcare
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Consumer Perspectives
• Lack of Interdisciplinary Skills
• Medical-technology companies had tried to
develop non-invasive POC testing systems but
could not succeed in the past
• Failure in such endeavors is common, due to
lack of interdisciplinary skills
ATM was created by A Banker and A Technologist in collaboration
They could not have done it on their own
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Lead to Advances that will transform
Life
Business
and
Global Economy
(McKinsey Global Institute)
Disruptive Technologies
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Independent Research
Twelve potential disruptive technologies
By McKinsey Global Institute analysis
• Mobile Internet
Inexpensive and capable mobile computing devices with
Internet connectivity
• Automation of knowledge work
Intelligent software systems that can perform
knowledge work, tasks involving unstructured
commands and subtle judgments
• The Internet of Things
Networks of low-cost sensors and actuators for data
collection, monitoring, decision making, response &
process optimization
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Independent Research contd.
• Cloud technology
Use of computer hardware and software resources
delivered over a network or the Internet, often as
a service (on demand)
• Advanced robotics
Increasingly capable robots with enhanced senses,
dexterity, and intelligence used to automate tasks
or augment humans
• Autonomous and near-autonomous vehicles
Vehicles that can navigate and operate intelligently
with reduced or no human intervention
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Independent Research contd.
• Next-generation genomics
Fast, low-cost gene sequencing, advanced big data
analytics, and synthetic biology (“writing” DNA)
• Energy storage
Devices or systems that store energy for later use,
including batteries
• 3D printing
Additive manufacturing techniques to create
objects by printing layers of material based on
digital models
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Independent Research contd.
• Advanced materials
Materials designed to have superior characteristics
(e.g., strength, weight, conductivity) or
functionality
• Advanced oil and gas exploration & recovery
Exploration and recovery techniques that make
extraction of unconventional oil and gas
economical
• Renewable energy
Generation of electricity from renewable sources
with reduced harmful impact on climate
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Transformations till date
• In 1000 BC, the only early test for diabetes was
whether your urine attracted ants
• In 2012, 25.8 million people with diabetes have
spent USD 245 billion on diabetes in US alone,
a figure presently rising by 7% per annum.
- Forbes Article Sept 2014
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Transformations till date contd.
• Cost of testing blood-sugar levels is rapidly falling -
- A handheld device at home can replace the
laboratory visit and analysis.
• Home blood-sugar monitors, are early examples
of “point-of-care” (POC) technology, that obviate
expensive testing in health-care facilities.
• This trend will only continue and grow
- Forbes Article Sept 2014
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Point of Care Technology
Exponential growth & business opportunities in health
care may be possible due to two factors:
• (a) the emergence of newer POC technologies that
lower the costs of diagnostics and replace health-care
workers and professionals
• (b) increase in chronic disease and the opportunities
this offers for lifelong use of products for diagnosis and
treatment
Healthcare may become the world’s most lucrative
industry
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Google & Novartis Partners
for “Smart lens”
• Google along with pharmaceutical giant Novartis
is working on a smart contact lens project , to
help patients manage diabetes - announced by
Google in January 2014
• The project aims to assist people with diabetes
by constantly measuring the glucose levels in
their tears. The project is currently being tested
using prototypes.
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Organ on a Chip
• Researchers have started working on a technology they call
Organ-on-a-Chip.
• An Organ-on-a-Chip is a multi-channel 3-D microfluid cell-
culture chip that simulates the activities, mechanics, and
physiological response of entire organs and organ systems
• It mimics the structure and functions of a living human
organ, on a clear, flexible microchip. The chips are
subjected to the physiological conditions that take place
inside the human body, and respond to infection,
inflammation, environmental toxins, and drugs.
• Perhaps this can abolish the need for animals in drug
development and toxin testing by replacing it altogether
with procedures using human tissue
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Organ on a Chip
Wyss Institute at Harvard University predicts
that the results will be
• More accurate than those obtained through
testing on animals
• With the twin benefits of better success rate
in clinical trials & enabling us to stop harming
the animals in the name of science.
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Organs-on-Chips
• The responses of Organs-on-Chips are far more predictably pertinent to
human physiology than are non-human animals’ responses
• They have the potential to
– Eliminate poor drug formulations at the pre-clinical stage
– Shorten the drug-development process & effort: Lower Time & Cost
– Provide A Disruptive Technology that can help eliminate the demand for
animal lives by testing drugs directly on artificial human organs.
• Potential revolution exists: of creating an Organ-on-a-Chip that is uniquely
suited to an individual
• This may help customize a drug to individual’s physiology
• Organ-on-a-Chip eventually represents a potential world of new possibilities
in the field of customized medicine.
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3D Printed Bio-Materials
Seven applications of 3D printers in healthcare that could have an important impact in the future:
1. Embryonic Stem Cells: These cells have already been successfully printed in a lab and could be
one-day use to create tissue that could help test drugs and assist in the growth of new organs.
2. Printing Skin: There have been many advances in the areas of developing skin to help burn
victims and skin disease patients, 3D printers can help further jumpstart these advances with
the addition of laser-printed skin cells.
3. Blood Vessels & Heart Tissue: Organovo is a company that has already successfully printed
blood vessels and sheets of cardiac tissue that actually beat along just like a real heart.
4. Replacing Cartilage & Bone: 3D printers have also helped scientists and doctors create stem
cells that could eventually develop into both bone and cartilage in the long-term.
5. Studying Cancer: Printing cancer cells is a way of growing these cells on tissue in a lab to study,
test drugs on and to eventually find a cure for.
6. Patching a Broken Heart: Printing cells with a 3D printer proves useful in a recent study of rats
that had previously suffered heart attacks and were given these patches of cells to help slowly
help improve their heart function overtime.
7. Replacement Organs: Printing new part for organs or entire organs all together will help solve
an ongoing medical need and help save hundred of thousands of people every year waiting for
an organ donation to come thru.
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What is 3-D Printing
An idea can go directly from
3D-design file to finished part
or product (& possibly skip
traditional manufacturing
steps)
3D printing enables on-
demand production, which
has interesting implications
for supply chains and spare
parts : A major cost for
manufacturers
3D printing can reduce the
amount of material wasted in
manufacturing and create
objects that are difficult or
impossible to produce with
traditional techniques
Scientists have “bio-printed”
organs, using an inkjet
printing technique to layer
human stem cells along with
supporting scaffolding
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Digestible Sensors
A digestible sensor transmits
information about a patient to medical
professionals to help them customize
patient care as well as the care
provided to other individuals
experiencing similar health conditions
or ailments.
Provide healthcare professionals
with information about the human
body and how various treatment
solutions affect each system of
organs.
Monitors body systems and wirelessly
transmits information to devices like
smart-phone or computer for review by
doctor. Latest innovations with
digestible sensors don’t require a
battery source - they solely rely on the
human body for energy.
An innovation of this nature can
help detect diseases and
conditions at earlier stages in
people digesting these sensors
that are in turn, constantly
monitored wirelessly
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Cloud-based Solutions
Communication within Healthcare is an easy problem
• Yet not solved fully for many decades …
• Referrals - Treatment - Progress updates - Insurance
authorizations are all communications : But cost money &
delays to patients & liabilities to healthcare provider
• Over 50 percent of referrals do not reach specialty care
providers : Patients miss treatment and healthcare providers
lose money
• A simple Cloud based solution can connect doctors & patients
with a Robust Referral Management platform & communicate
across all entities
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Impact on Society,
Business & Economies
Implications for individuals and societies
– Changes quality of life, health, and environment
– Changes patterns of consumption
– Changes nature of work
Creates opportunities for entrepreneurs
Implications for established businesses & organizations
– Creates new products and services
– Innovative Material & Supply Chain Management in the industries
– Changes organizational structures
Implications for economies and governments
– Drives growth or productivity
– Game Changing comparative advantages for nations
– Affects current ways of employment
– Poses new regulatory and legal challenges
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Global Market Trends
• According to May 2014 figures of BCC Research,
the global POC market has steadily grown from
2007 to 2013
• Average compounded annual POC growth rate is
4.5%, and annual revenue is expected to reach at
least USD 19 billion by 2018
• Healthcare Industry will shift Focus towards:
– better treatment, lower costs-time-expense, and
reducing animal suffering due to drug development
– and to development of patient-specific drugs
29. Emerging Edges Consultants Pvt Ltd.
Disruptive Technologies
will impact
Society, Businesses & Economies
and therefore
will impact
Every Industry Sector
The Key lies in embracing the
Change and Evolving with it
Thank You !
