Composite: Data Life Wall Graphic, by Wired
+ Phineas Gage Connectome, by John Darrell Van Horn, et al
Wired DATA | Life Presents The AI+ML+Big Data Future Of Health & Medicine:
After MD Anderson’s 41 Cancer-Fighting Foods, I was reminded of one more thing:
Back in November, there was a health conference that both MDACC & Wired put on called Wired DATA | Life.
It was a small invitation-only shindig, mostly for people really into the health space, like doctors and biotech entrepreneurs; so it didn’t really get a lot of press coverage.
Nevertheless, for those of you interested in the subject, -ESPECIALLY- its intersection with “Big Data”, some of the segments are really not bad.
So below, there is a list of each one, the talking points and a few comments on it to flesh it out & let you better decide if you’d like to watch the segment.
Included are embeds to the best vids of the show, with links to others, just in-case.
Note: It seems like Fora’s videos don’t load as fast as a YouTube, so you may have to wait a short while, even though we only have 6 on this page.
Anyway, Tally Ho!:
-II.”Rebooting The Clinic”
Speaker: Dr. Rushika Fernandapulle, CEO iorahealth.com
The Takeaway: Iora is trying to innovate healthcare with a subscription structure, so doctors can focus on preventative-style-care without crashing the business.
They focus on empathy for the patient and changing any/all procedures, or inventing new ones that will get better, more humanist results more consistently.
-Such as buying a $45.00 ipod for a patient & filling it with music to calm his anxiety, which ultimately saves $280,000.00 in avoided-consequence-costs.
Rating: -Great, fast, informative, very good. For people interested in how the system can be improved structurally. 4/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction
02.What’s Wrong With Primary Care?
03.How Does an Iora Health Clinic Work?
04.Health Coaches and Buildining Relationships with Patients?
05.Iora Health Cost Model
06.Iora Patient Story?
07.Electronic Health Records?
08.Getting the Health Service Culture Right
09.How Do Systems Get So Rigid?
10.Q&A
Video Link: Fora.tv
UPDATE: Archived Short, courtesy of DailyMotion:
-III.”The Science Of Hangovers”
Speaker: Adam Rogers, Articles Editor, Wired
The Takeaway: Outlines a few different causes & treatments in-passing. Not much actual science done on it except for asian raisin-tree extract. It’s not just dehydration.
Rating: Meh. Rushed, middling, bullet-point presentation. Doesn’t seem to reach quite enough hard conclusions. Could have been a little bit more fun presented differently. 2.5/5 Stars
Talking-Points:
01.The History and Science of Hangovers
02.People Who Don’t Get Hangovers?
03.What Causes Hangovers?
04.What Works?
05.Q&A
Video Link: Fora.tv
-V.”Rules To Live Longer By”
Speaker: Dr. David Agus, davidagus.com, Author, “A Short Guide To A Long Life”
The Takeaway: The germ-theory approach screwed up medicine, because it made people think like problem-fixers instead of good-maintainers. Health is complicated, so doctors should think more like climatologists. Sitting is horrific. Do aerobic exercise every day; 1 hour if-possible. Beware of blanket-recommendations with no study behind them; see: margarine. 50% of your health is in things like lifestyle, environment, stress, etc and not in your DNA. Bacteria contributes too, and has been confirmed in mice with obesity. Keep as much about your schedule as Regular as you can, even meals; especially sleep. Vitamins don’t always have the intended effects. Aspirin is basically a wonder-drug.
Rating: A little jargony. But it does make some good points. 4/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.What Is Health
02.Avoiding Disease
03.Disease and the Body Complex System
04.Exercise
05.Sequencing Genes
06.Aspirin vs. Vitamins
07.Proteomics -Studying proteins
08.What’s Next? Microbiomics
09.Regularity
10.Following Your Own Rules? w/ Editor
11.Q&A
Video:
UPDATE: Archived Short, courtesy of DailyMotion:
-VI.”The Number Needed To Treat”
Speaker: David H. Newman, Dir. of Clin. Research, ER Med, Mt. Sinai, TheNNT.com
The Takeaway: Be very careful where you get your information & decisions. His website takes clinical trials data & turns it into calculators & ratings you can use to see if a treatment, drug, or procedure is right for you. Health is an industry based on information-asymmetry.
Rating: [inveterate smartass] Newman brings down the house here. Easily the best presentation of the whole conference. If you’ve ever wondered about what works & what doesn’t, watch this video & visit their website. 5 Stars out of 5.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction
02.Where Do You Get Information
03.The Number Needed To Treat
04.Small Benefits Can Be Meaningful
05.Personalized Data
06.Disrupt An Industry That Has Failed
07.Q&A
Video:
-VII.”My Daughter’s DNA Mystery”
Speaker: Hugh Rienhoff MD, mydaughtersdna.com
The Takeaway: Scientist has daughter with mysterious genetic defect. Tries to track it down.
Rating: A bit heavy on the jargon. 19 minutes that feel a little bit too much like 19 hours. Might be more compelling if it were given The Radiolab Treatment. Comme-çi/Comme-ça. 2/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.The Birth of a Child With Genetic Disease
02.Misdiagnoses
03.Gene Sequencing By Hand in The Attic
04. Isolating The Mutation And Studying It In Mice
Video Link: Fora.tv
-VIII. “The Fertility App That Could Change Health Care”
Speaker: Mike Huang, CEO & Co-Founder, Glow
The Takeaway: Glow innovates in a targeted healthcare area, fertility. Creates an App that uses Science, Semi-Big Data & some machine-learning to optimize conception chances.
Rating: Solid presentation. Interesting application of science & data. Only worth it if you’re quite concerned with conception, though. 3/5 Stars.
Talking Points
01.The Founding of a Fertility App
02.Glow App Demo
03.Looking Beyond Fertility
04.Impacts on Insurance Companies
05.Q&A
Video Link: Fora.tv
UPDATE: Archived Short, courtesy of DailyMotion:
-IX.”You and Your Microbiome”
Speaker: Martin Blazer, Director, Human Microbiome Program, NYU Langone
The Takeaway: Scientists & doctors have know about this for a long time. There are betewen 3,000-10,000 different microbes in each person. Most are good. They make vitamins, or fight off bad microbes. Antibiotics are generally a terrible idea & are over-prescribed. -Particularly for young children up to age 3. Most people will get at least 1 course per year. Antibiotics are linked to obesity. Livestock-farmers have known this for quite awhile & start the animals young. This practice is outlawed in the EU. He thinks the system of microbes is very-widely involved in disease & illness. Children delivered by c-section have markedly-different, and possibly-worse, microbial-communities in their bodies. Some day, there will be a way of replacing & reinforcing these microbes that is very effective; moreso than fancy yogurts. Much of this will really depend on Big Data and machine-analytics to find most of the connections & we’re just not there-yet with what amounts to another layer in what people are calling “Personalized Medicine”.
Rating: A little technical, but not bad. Out-there cutting-edge kinda stuff. 3/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction
02. What is Living On and In Us
03. What These Microbes Do
04. The Effect of Antibiotics
05. Evidence of Connection Between Obesity & Antibiotics
06. The Impact of The Microbiome.
07. What Can Be Taken From The Data?
08. C Difficile
09. How Does The Data Get To The Private Sector?
10. Turning This Into Medical Practice
11. Q&A
Video Link: Fora.tv
-X.”One Tiny Drop Changes Everything”
Speaker: Elizabeth Holmes, Sexy-voiced Founder & CEO, Theranos
The Takeaway: Elizabeth created a cheap, streamlined, bio-testing company that shows pricing for a wide range of tests right on the website. You will soon be able to leave samples at Walgreen’s & get the lowest cost possible.
Rating: Meh. Jargony. Drags on. Not worth the look. 1/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01. What Is Theranos?
02. A Theranos Blood Test
03. Why Small Sample Sizes Improve Results
04. Interface with Doctors
05. Theranos Mobile App
06. Accessibility of Theranos
07. Problems to Overcome
08. Timeline
09. Motivation
Video Link: Fora.tv
UPDATE: Archived Short, courtesy of DailyMotion:
-XI.”Sponsored Session: Break Chatter Presented by IBM”
Speakers: Courtney DiNardo, AsstProf UTMDACC, David Sink, Dir. of client solutions, IBM Watson
The Takeaway: IBM uses Watson technology to clarify data for doctors, display historical trends & machine-learn from the best specialists in the world. Soon, their recommendations can be shared with any doctor in the world who has internet.
Rating: Fair. Only really worth a look if you’re a practicing MD. 2/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction
02.Day In the Life of a World Class Oncologist?
03.How Is Watson Different From Google?
04.How Important Is Specialization With Watson?
05.Oncology Expert Advisor on Watson?
06.Watson’s Ability to Be Right?
07.Infrastructure to Support Watson?
08.Working Exclusively with Watson?
09.Long Term Vision for Watson?
Video Link: Fora.tv
-XII.”Products From The Future”
Speaker: Cliff Kuang, Senior Design Editor, Wired
The Takeaway: Design is many-times the art of problem-solving. New tools can be imbedded in old instruments. These can be dispersed in 3rd world countries for the greater-good.
Rating: Good. Delivered in clear English with little jargon. Corresponds with an article in the December issue. Definitely worth a look. 4/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Design Is Problem Solving
02.Yield by New Deal Design
03.Kernel by FuseProject
04.Healthybaby by Frog Design
05.Juice Box by Artefact
Article Link: Wired-4 World Changing Products
Video:
-XIII.”Sensors That Can Go Anywhere”
Speaker: Dave Icke, CEO, MC10 Technologies
The Takeaway: With the use and innovation of novel electronics techniques and encapsulation, MC10 can put non-boxy sensors just about anywhere on the human body. There are situations when you would need 24/7 monitoring. Some of them have batteries, some are powered differently. Some are mounted like an article of clothing, like Reebok’s concussion-measurement device. Others stick right to you. These are some of the devices that will communicate with the big-data backends. Pervasive, low-cost sensors and data-logging can remove a lot of reporting requirements and mistakes.
Rating: Not bad. Interesting to see how this develops into the future. 3/5 Stars.
Talking Points
01.Wearable Technology Today
02.Putting Wearable Technology to Use
03.CHECKLIGHT by Reebok
04.MC10 Biostamp
05.MC10 Technology for Health Care
06.Wearable Tech Research
07.Building Products to Scale
08.Q & A
Video Link: Fora.tv
-XIV.”Your Body And Big Data”
Speaker: Jeremiah Robison VP Software, Jawbone
The Takeaway: With small components, Jawbone Up and devices like it can help people become more healthy. It can record activity as well as sleep, catalog it into the app’s data-store, and then use machine-learning & analysis to suggest positive behavior-modification. With the right permissions, the app can even look into your calendar to find a suitable exercise-slot if the analytics on your personal “Big Data” show you haven’t been exercising enough. There are even some reverse-engineered-correlations they can show. For instance, people who sleep a certain amount have the healthiest BMIs. In the future, many sensors will communicate with each other. For example your Jawbone might tell your Nest thermostat that you’ve just come back from a run & you’re hot, even though the house itself is at the right temperature.
Rating: Another good one. Clearly-explained, and with interesting possibilities. Anyone who’s a technologist or a data-geek would really like this talk. 4/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.What Is Jawbone Up?
02.Personal Trackers vs. Big Data Behind Them?
03.Behavior Modification?
04.Future of Jawbone Up?
05.Distribution of Sensors and the Internet of Things?
06.Q&A
Video:
-XV.”Winning Through Science”
Speaker: Andrea Hudy M.S., Asst. Ath, Dir. Sports Performance, U. Kansas
The Takeaway: U. Kansas is using data-logging, digital instruments, time analysis and computer measurements to increase power-output of athletes and articulate performance-errors. These include speed & weight-sensitive computerized weight-racks and large accelerometers.
Rating: A little slow. Full of jargony jockspeak. The explanations could be a little better fleshed-out. 1/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction
02.Bringing Data Collection Technology to the Gym
03.Force Plate Technology
04.Using the Force Plate to Fix Jeff Withey’s Jump
05.Other Benefits to Incorporating Data Technology
06.Women Coaches in Men’s Sports
07.Q&A
Video Link: Fora.tv
-XVI.”Partner Session: Moon Shots”
Speaker: Dr. Ronald Depinho, President MDACC
The Takeaway: MD Anderson is trying a new pilot program to try to impact the rate of 8 different forms of cancer and maybe even eradicate them in the next decade. Those are: melanoma, prostate, lung, 2 leukemias, 1 breast, and ovarian. (no mention of Google Calico, though) They’ll use imaging, early-detection, genetic, and protein-analysis. For example, it now costs significantly-less to sequence DNA than it did before. Nobody will know what the affects of the ACA are for about 5 years. There is a huge failure-rate in drug-testing. This may be changed by better diligence at the beginning stages. Even today, most med-data is written. To pull the conclusions out, it must be intelligently-digitized. Only then will some of the crazier relationships be discovered. In some cases, 50% of cancers can be prevented through testing & monitoring.
Rating: Very articulate & non-jargony. One of the best talks of the conference. 4/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction: Moon Shots
02.What Is Different This Time
03.The Eight Cancers Chosen
04.Accountability
05.How Does The ACA Effect MD Anderson
06.Hastening The Translation
07.The Role Of Big Data And Analytics
08.Understanding The Instigators Of Cancer
09.Q&A
Video:
-XVII.”The Art And Science Of Data Visualization”
Speaker:Martin Krzywinski, Scientist, Bioinformatics Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, Inventor of Circos.
The Takeaway: Great visualizations illustrate and simplify. Many graphics before the circle-graph made things impossible to look at, even for trained scientists. It’s not all science, though. A certain amount of art & style has to be brought to the table, to the point some illustrations can be admired in their own right. These visualizations not only work for civilians, but doctors, too. Accurate circle-graphs of genetic changes can make massive data-sets much more quickly scannable by a trained doctor’s eye. Visualization is more important than ever, because data of all sorts is just exploding. Just as much as there might be a danger of exaggerating some illustrations for effect, analysis of the doctor’s performance must also be conducted. Because the only thing that matters is patient-outcomes. And the diagrams must be optimized for that, not what one particular doctor fancies artistically. -You know; Doctors, man…
Rating: Pretty good. Clear. Concise. Well-spoken & presented. 3.5/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.History of Data Visualization
02.Explosion of Complexity in Data
03.Visual Contest for Scientific Information
04.Beautiful Science
05.Human Eyes Can Be Easily Fooled
Video:
-XVIII.”Little Companies, Big Solutions”
Speakers: Halle Tecco, Rock Health. Elli Kaplan, Neurotrack. Sean Duffy, Omada Health.
The Takeaway: Rock Health is a VC firm focusing on health-related startups. Halle used to work at Apple in Business-Development. They only accept 3% of applicants. She presents 2.
Rating: Fair enough. Only really worthwhile if you’re specifically interested in Alzheimer’s or Diabetes tools. 3/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction: Rock Health
02.Themes of Investment
03.Who Are The Rock Health Entrepreneurs
04.Managing The Process With The FDA
05.How Insurors Are Entering This Space
06.Presentation: Neurotrack
07.When To Use The Neurotrack Screening
08.A Possible Consumer Track For This Screening
09.Presentation: Omada Heatlh
10.Price Competitive w/ brick & mortars?
11.Rock Health: Match Maker
12.The Ultimate Outcome
13.The Next Ideas
Video Link: Fora.tv
UPDATE: Archived Short, courtesy of DailyMotion:
-XIX.”Location Is Everything”
Speaker: Bill Wasik, Senior Editor, Wired
The Takeaway: Non health-oriented vamp on uses of big data from unlikely sources.
Rating: Seems a little fluffy. Perhaps this was a slot-filler? You might reconsider bothering with this one. Kind of a conference-nonsequitur. I ended up feeling like I wanted my ten minutes and twenty-six seconds back. 1/5 Stars.
Talking Points:
01.Introduction: Mapping
02.Example 1: Slum Infrastructure
03.Example2: Disaster Planning
04.Example 3: Development
05.Example 4: Health
06.Example 5: Climate Change
Video Link: Fora.tv
UPDATE: Apologies for the link-rot here. But WIRED seems to have pulled all the resources except the mini-site for this.
Hearst, Adobe, & Gruber also pulled Fora.tv entirely off the internet in 2018, so the videos appear inaccessible as of this date; even via The Internet Archive.
There are a few DATA | Life & “Living By The Numbers” shorts scattered over at DailyMotion which have been embedded here, but for some reason they appear to have audio problems on some platforms like Firefox right now. Safari does seem to work, though.
Media Credits:
All Videos by Wired, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Fora.tv
Links:
• Source: Wired DATA|Life Site | Wired DATA|Life Videos at Fora.tv
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