The 2017 World Medical Innovation Forum was held on May 1 to May 3 in Boston with 1,300 participants, including 125 executive presenters and key leaders who will shape the future of healthcare /cardiovascular care.
A common theme emerging from the sessions was the crucial role that innovation can play in improving patient outcomes, enhancing devices and diagnostic technologies, and improving treatments. The CEOs and senior executives of Medtronic, Philips, Cardinal Health, Abbott, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Mass General Hospital, GE Healthcare, UnitedHealthGroup, Bard, Abiomed, Edwards Lifesciences, representatives from academia and investors offered their perspectives on enabling innovation in their companies and in the industry overall. They touched upon industry wide issues of how we make drugs and treatments affordable while ensuring companies are still able to generate the funds needed to drive innovation; potential cross-industry collaborative solutions; applying AI to improve decision making across the value chain. The overall theme of the conference was that the industry is at the transformative moment when it comes to innovation and access and all players need to come together to harness the potential that digital/exponential technologies offer.
The 2017 World Medical Innovation Forum was held on May 1 to May 3 in Boston with 1,300 participants, including 125 executive presenters and key leaders who will shape the future of healthcare /cardiovascular care.
A common theme emerging from the sessions was the crucial role that innovation can play in improving patient outcomes, enhancing devices and diagnostic technologies, and improving treatments. The CEOs and senior executives of Medtronic, Philips, Cardinal Health, Abbott, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Mass General Hospital, GE Healthcare, UnitedHealthGroup, Bard, Abiomed, Edwards Lifesciences, representatives from academia and investors offered their perspectives on enabling innovation in their companies and in the industry overall. They touched upon industry wide issues of how we make drugs and treatments affordable while ensuring companies are still able to generate the funds needed to drive innovation; potential cross-industry collaborative solutions; applying AI to improve decision making across the value chain. The overall theme of the conference was that the industry is at the transformative moment when it comes to innovation and access and all players need to come together to harness the potential that digital/exponential technologies offer.
The five key takeaways from the conference could be summarized as follows:
Virtual and Mixed Reality (VR or MR) were amongst the most showcased technologies at SXSW 2017, and Sony’s The WOW Factory stood apart from its peers as featuring some of the most promising applications of the technologies.
Although most mainstream use cases of VR involve a 360 degree video (i.e., viewing a scene or video in every direction with limited movement), Sony’s lounge introduced visitors to a series of emerging applications of the technology, including immersing users in environments that stimulated all the senses. Most notably, Sony’s Mixed Reality CAVE Experience represented a unique experience that will likely become more mainstream as VR and MR mature. During the 5 minute exhibition, guests were asked “If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?” Seconds later, visitors were teleported to the location of their choosing.
Virtual and Mixed Reality (VR or MR) were amongst the most showcased technologies at SXSW 2017, and Sony’s The WOW Factory stood apart from its peers as featuring some of the most promising applications of the technologies.
Although most mainstream use cases of VR involve a 360 degree video (i.e., viewing a scene or video in every direction with limited movement), Sony’s lounge introduced visitors to a series of emerging applications of the technology, including immersing users in environments that stimulated all the senses. Most notably, Sony’s Mixed Reality CAVE Experience represented a unique experience that will likely become more mainstream as VR and MR mature. During the 5 minute exhibition, guests were asked “If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?” Seconds later, visitors were teleported to the location of their choosing.
The mixed reality cave automatic virtual environment (“CAVE”), also known as a warp square, is a fully immersive, 4K experience that allows multiple users to experience a VR-realm without the use of a headmount display. With Sony’s ultra short throw projectors and interactive walls, the cave experience allowed guests to fully interact with their digital environments without the distraction of their own shadows.
Though the application of the technology without a headmount is relatively new, the technology has already demonstrated promising use cases for several industries, including:
According to Sony, next generation use of the technology will seek to further stimulate the senses, including sound, scents, and natural elements (e.g., wind, cool temperatures, heat). With VR projected to generate $30B in revenue by 2020, we can only expect to see the application of CAVE technology continue to develop and become more prevalent in the marketplace.
This past week, I attended a TUGG event connecting New England's tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and philanthropists. TUGG (Technology Underwriting Greater Good) hosted its annual Wine and Tequila Party to raise funding for six non-profit organizations serving local under-resourced youth through entrepreneurial, educational, and life experiences. In addition to being attracted by the event’s name, I was excited to meet and learn from entrepreneurs using technology for social innovation. In both regards, the event did not disappoint. Between a myriad of margaritas, I talked with these six non-profits competing for $50,000 funding, which was determined by attendees’ votes.
This past week, I attended a TUGG event connecting New England's tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and philanthropists. TUGG (Technology Underwriting Greater Good) hosted its annual Wine and Tequila Party to raise funding for six non-profit organizations serving local under-resourced youth through entrepreneurial, educational, and life experiences. In addition to being attracted by the event’s name, I was excited to meet and learn from entrepreneurs using technology for social innovation. In both regards, the event did not disappoint. Between a myriad of margaritas, I talked with these six non-profits competing for $50,000 funding, which was determined by attendees’ votes.
Top Five Takeaways:
One of the more inspiring and convincing presentations at SXSW (at least to an optimist like me) came from Deloitte’s own thought leader John Hagel, who delivered a talk entitled “Robots Can Restore Our Humanity”. He opened with a bold claim that all of today’s work as we know it will be automated – making the case that work can be defined as “executing tightly specified and tightly integrated tasks in a standardized way”, and that is exactly what computer algorithms are designed to do. He went on to essentially mythbust the idea that the gig economy will disrupt work in any lasting way because the discrete tasks on the table to be outsourced are exactly those that can be automated – and they will be the first to go!
One of the more inspiring and convincing presentations at SXSW (at least to an optimist like me) came from Deloitte’s own thought leader John Hagel, who delivered a talk entitled “Robots Can Restore Our Humanity”. He opened with a bold claim that all of today’s work as we know it will be automated – making the case that work can be defined as “executing tightly specified and tightly integrated tasks in a standardized way”, and that is exactly what computer algorithms are designed to do. He went on to essentially mythbust the idea that the gig economy will disrupt work in any lasting way because the discrete tasks on the table to be outsourced are exactly those that can be automated – and they will be the first to go!
His conclusion is what hooked me: If today’s repetitive tasks and processes will be automated by machines, then nobody will be required to do anything repetitive…ever. The only “work” left to do will be endeavors unique to humans – those linked directly to creativity, emotion, and passion. The work (and institutions) of tomorrow will revolve around creative pursuits and maximizing human potential, opening the floodgates for fields related to the arts, performance, wellness, coaching and experiential hosting (e.g. in entertainment, learning, and travel as demand for “experiencing life to the fullest” increases). Humans will use automated technologies as a springboard – not a replacement – for human achievement.
Thoroughly convinced that creativity is untouchable and ready to enroll in singing lessons, I headed over to the IBM House (every attending company has a “house” of some sort and does their best, through a combination of alcohol and digital things, to make it the cool place to hang out). Staring me in the face in fancy digital signage was a message that said “At the heart of every great song is a powerful emotion.” Amen!
Below that: “What if you could inject specific emotions directly into a piece of music?” Hmm…I guess that sounds cool.
Then I read further: “With Watson you can.” Damnit Watson! My creative dreams were dashed. Machines can replicate human creativity after all, so yea we’re doomed. Then I picked up the tablet in front of me, selected a genre, selected an “emotion”, and hit play. I was underwhelmed. I quickly realized the finite range Watson had, and reminded myself that its abilities were based on pre-programmed algorithms rather than creative inspiration. But wait – what does that mean for the future relationship between machines and creativity? If Watson can do this right now, then according to Moore’s law machines will be able to one-up Beethoven by next week.
Here is why I stand with Hagel: It’s all about the human experience. No matter how automated the creation of an output becomes, it will matter whether or not a human did the creating. Look at live music performances, for example (and there were plenty at SXSW): Would you rather watch someone lip sync to a pre-recorded track or hear them sing it with their actual voice? You’d pick the human, because there is an innate appreciation for that and emotion triggered by experiencing a fellow human’s performance. This can be applied to the wide range of arts, adventures, and other experiences that humans want to share with each other. And humans will want to continue creating these types of creative outputs because there is natural fulfillment in doing so. No matter how automated the world becomes, there will be demand to continue creating and consuming work that pushes our potential.
In addition to this personal creative renaissance that SXSW sparked in me, here are my top five takeaways from the conference overall:
The Future of Work and its general ongoing reference to a fear of the robots was a major theme at SXSW. A session titled “Gig Economy and the Future of Work” focused on the regulatory considerations for the gig economy, and how to ensure a new population of temporary workers receive equal benefits and income security afforded by working full time at a corporation. It also focused on the importance of enabling the “passions of the people”, and that any future labor policies will help enable individuals to pursue their passions openly – I thought this tied neatly to another idea presented at the conference that the future of work will be all about pursuing passion and creativity.
The Future of Work and its general ongoing reference to a fear of the robots was a major theme at SXSW. A session titled “Gig Economy and the Future of Work” focused on the regulatory considerations for the gig economy, and how to ensure a new population of temporary workers receive equal benefits and income security afforded by working full time at a corporation. It also focused on the importance of enabling the “passions of the people”, and that any future labor policies will help enable individuals to pursue their passions openly – I thought this tied neatly to another idea presented at the conference that the future of work will be all about pursuing passion and creativity.
During Q&A a panelist pointed out that the model of Western education in going to school for twenty five years, then working in a job for the rest of your life no longer works, and that the system needs to be refocused to empower students for lifelong learning: New jobs and new skills / thought processes required will continuously emerge as current (and even future) jobs are replaced through automation at an increasing rate.
Another session called “How to keep you company human in 2030” focused on the importance of enabling “meaningful work” for the future worker – and that diversity is of critical importance. Diversity, in particular, has important implications for how AI programs are developed in the first place: if the algorithms through which machines learn are built by humans (hint: they are), there is a risk that said human’s inherent biases (regardless of background) will find their way into the programming – resulting in a biased robot. For an exaggerated (if not comical) example of how this is possible, see Microsoft’s attempted release of the Tay chatbot last year.
Assist CEO Shane Mac, one of the many attending panelists speaking on this topic, noted that all of his employees have a personal assistant and that each assistant works with its own automated personal assistant, x.ai, to conduct work. As a Deloitte lifer, I deeply connect with the value this would add for staff – freeing up their time from repetitive tasks to focus on higher value work! The fact companies are employing these solutions now signals the technology is mature enough today.