From Crowdsourcing to Big Data: how ePatients (and their machines) are evolving health - Opening speech at UXCON 2013

Crowdsourcing and BigData: how ePatients
(and their machines) are changing Health!

© 2012 Razorﬁsh Healthware. All rights reserved. Conﬁdential and proprietary.!

A Design
Paradox!
!
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Army Cadet Ofﬁcer!
Plant Ecologist!
Satellite Remote
Sensing and GIS
Researcher!
Big Pharma Executive!
Strategy Advisor!
Wikipedian (17k+ edits)!

UX=???!


Singularity!
!
• 

A point where all
parallel lines meet!

• 

(math) The value or
range of values of a
function for which a
derivative does not
exist!

• 

(physics) A point or
region in spacetime in
which gravitational
forces cause matter to
have an inﬁnite density;
associated with Black
Holes!


Technological
Singularity!
!
“… a future period during
which the pace of
technological change will be
so rapid, its impact so deep,
that human life will be
irreversibly transformed. (…)
this epoch will transform the
concepts that we rely on to
give meaning to our lives,
from our business models to
the cycle of human life,
including death itself.”!


GNR Singularity 
Genetics (G), Nanotechnology (N) and Robotics (R)  

 
The convergence of Genetics, Nanotechnology
and Robotics will allow to “reprogram our
biology to achieve the virtual elimination of
disease“ (G), “redesign and rebuild (…) our
bodies and brains and the world with which we
interact“ (N) and building “human-level robots
(…) redesigned to far exceed human
capabilities“ (R) 
 

 

!

Question: 
 

Is technology all? 
 
 

!


Scientia
potentia est!
(Knowledge is Power)!
!
Francis Bacon!
Meditationes Sacrae (1597)!
!

!
Knowledge allows one's
potential or abilities in life
to increase. !
Having and sharing
knowledge is the basis for
one's reputation and
inﬂuence. Thus,
withholding knowledge
means being in advantage. !


Knowledge !
is power!
(also in medicine)!
!
!
!
Asymmetry in information
between physicians and
patients, so as professional
jargon, has always been
the foundation of the
unbalanced relationship
between them!


Cultural Singularity 
 
«A phase of human evolution, where the
convergence of apparently unrelated
knowledge ﬁelds, generate a abrupt
evolutionary discontinuity between previous
and following believing, behaviors and
boundaries.» 

 

(F. Scala, 2013)

!

Today’s Design exercise!


01


02


03


04


Crowdsourcing!


The Inﬁnite
Monkey Theorem!
!
A monkey hitting keys
at random on a
typewriter keyboard
for an inﬁnite amount
of time will almost
surely type a given
text, such as the
complete works of
William Shakespeare.!

!

A question:!
!
What does it happen
when the monkey is
self-aware, selfdisciplined and it is
guided by an inner
sense of purpose? !

!


Crowdsourcing 
 
«The use of crowd, without any formal or hierarchical 
coordination structure among its members, for 
performing a certain scope, in order to pursue which,
an exceptional amount of resources would be
necessary; where “exceptional amount of resources”
means a quantity of time, money, personnel or skill,
and their combinations, which would exceed the
capabilities of any formal organization.» 
 
!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!(F. Scala, 2013)!


Old Style: !
Encyclopaedia Britannica!
!
•  32.000 articles!
•  1 language (English)!
•  6.224th website
worldwide!
•  Limited to English
readers worldwide!
•  Limited to the ones who
can buy it!!!!
•  4000+ contributors,
including 110 Nobel
laureates!

!

Wikipedia: !
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

the Total Encyclopaedia!
!
30 million articles!
287 languages!
6th most visited website
worldwide!
365 million readers
worldwide!
FREE FOR EVERYONE!!!!

•  A 2005 investigation in
Nature showed that
accuracy rate of science
articles in Wikipedia is
comparable to
Encyclopaedia
Britannica!

!

WMF: !
Behind Wikipedia!
!
•  142 staff people!
•  Simple technology (wiki)!
•  Living on individual
donations year on year!

Wikipedia is done by
350.000 !
UNPAID VOLUNTEERS!

!


Collaborative  
Knowledge Law

(Scala’s Law)

 

 
«Given a collaborative knowledge-building task of any
dimension, the quantity of time and monetary
resources necessary for completion is inversely
proportional to the number of contributors and their
individual speciﬁc skills level; while the quality of ﬁnal
outcome is directly proportional to this number and
skills set.» 
 
!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!(F. Scala, 2013)!


Big Data!


Big Data deﬁnition 
 
«Big data is the term for a collection of data
sets so large and complex that it becomes
difﬁcult to process using on-hand database
management tools or traditional data
processing applications. The challenges
include capture, curation, storage, search,
sharing, transfer, analysis, and
visualization.»!

Source: Wikipedia


Big Data landscape 
 
«Enabled by the cost reductions in sensor
technology, mobile connectivity, and battery 
life, and thanks to cloud computing – a remote
service that collects and crunches the data –
people are re-writing their own knowledge and,
with it, a perception of today’s reality. We should
bear in mind that machines are more numerous
than their human counterparts» 
 
!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!(L. Agrò, 2013)!


Big Data consequences 
 
«The day in which we will produce more
content in a single day, than the rest of
human history, is near at hand. However,
currently the amount of data produced by
humans is very much less than the data
produced by machines» 
 
!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!(L. Agrò, 2013)!


Once upon a time:!
The medical record!

!
•  The unique document
describing our health
history.!
•  A very limited
information agent, since
it was static, noncontinuous, nonobjective!
•  BUT anamnesis, medical
decisions and
epidemiology were
based on it!!


Quantiﬁed Self!


Medical sensors
meet mobile!
!
• 

Medical sensors have
the capability to
measure virtually any
physical parameter!

• 

When integrated with
simple mobile
interfaces, they become
a continuous
monitoring tool!

• 

Under the condition of
invisibility and passive
data recording!


Medical Tricorder!
!
• 

Qualcomm XPrize is a
award of USD 10
millions for the ﬁrst one
who will build a Medical
Tricorder.!

• 

Peter H. Diamandis is
positive they will assign
the Prize in the next ﬁve
years.!

…do you think it is
too soon?!


GE VScan!
!
• 

General Electric has
invented, realized and
commercialized a
portable bioscan!

• 

It allows to!

• 

Despite the limitedness
of its function to a
single area, Vscan is
the ﬁrst example of how
much we are near to
Tricorder !


Connecting dots!
!
When individual sensors
are crowdsourced, and
their data collected,
analyzed, clustered and
displayed in a form
understandable by the
individual cultural level
(doctor, caregiver,
patient), they can
generate a singularity in
our understanding of
healthcare!


Cultural singularity: prototypes!


I’m a UX expert: what can I do?!


People are !
Difﬁdent Apes!
!
• 

Very few innovators
conceive new things!

• 

Only a few pioneers adopt
them!

• 

Only later a wider majority
adopt them!

• 

Laggards use them only
when they are common!

…only when !
UX is good!!!

People are !
Lazy Apes!
!
• 

Energy conservation is
one of the pillars of Nature!

• 

Average humans don’t like
to painfully learn how to
use a new technology:
having beneﬁts without
effort is just ok!

• 

The optimal design is the
one which produces
visible results while
remaining invisible!

(I’m talking about you,
Google Glass)!

Patients are
Preoccupied
Apes!
!
• 

Need for reassurance!

• 

Need for guidance!

• 

Need for simple words!

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Need for simple UX!


Bad Design
Examples!


UX experts’ role in this
cultural singularity 
 
«UX experts can be the catalyzing factor of current
cultural singularity in healthcare.  
This can happen if they act as a semantic bridge
between knowledge users and knowledge owners. 
The result of this effort has to be the invisible
embedding of the massive crowdsourced data
capturing, analysis, representation and utilization
process in the very texture of our lives.» 
 
!

!

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!

!

!

!(F. Scala, 2013)!


Ferdinando Scala Pro
@fscalapro
ferdinandoscala

White Paper available on
www.razorfishhealthware.com


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