El Rincon del Dr. KakaWate

Advances in  artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology, and many other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous two hundred years.

In order to understand why I say this, one needs to understand the basis of Moore’s law and exponential thinking. What does this mean? It means that the technology created in the past has helped develop the technology of tomorrow in an exponential pace and will continue to do so.  Say what?  Lets say you were asked the following question “From your current location, where would you be if you took 30 steps?” You would probably be able to say with accuracy your location. Now, if we address this in an exponential concept. Taking 30 steps exponentially (1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128 etc) you would end up 1 billion steps away. Would you have been able to predict this? Likely not since most of us are linear thinkers.  This is the foundation of exponential technology. Most people in healthcare are not used to thinking about how technologies that grow at this rate will impact our future and doing so is a key component in making this a better world. If you want more information regarding this, don’t miss the article from Nature “Moore’s law is not just for computers”

Ok… What does any of this have to do with cardiology or the ACC? ACC ’13 marks the third year that The Cardiovascular Education Innovation Forum has been a part of the annual meeting. Despite it’s recent inception, this Forum has been growing linearly (I am trying to change that but there are many obstacles!). This year’s Forum was a little different than prior years. Three fellows, including myself, joined the program committee and helped determine the topics and speakers. Our goal is to mold the Forum into what we know it can become. I have been fortunate enough to be a Singularity University Futuremed alumni in 2011 and 2013. The mission of Singularity University is “How to impact the lives of 1 billion people in 10 years”. Will this happen by placing better drug-eluting or bioabsorbable stents? How about renal artery denervation or TAVR. Change of this magnitude in healthcare will require new strategies and technology along with a different way of thinking. Not just a new design of an existing product. And by the way, I am starting interventional cardiology in June 2013, but then pursuing a biodesign or endovascular/innovation fellowship. I am certain that tech-savy healthcare providers who have embraced technology will lead the revolution in healthcare change.

That is the goal of the cardiovascular innovation forum. To show and motivate every cardiologist to try and impact the life of hundreds at a time.  This year the CVIEF invited The Society of Physician entrepreneurs to help and orient cardiologists on the path to materializing our ideas. Venture Capitalists and Angel investors that talked about what type of ideas they are likely  to fund, how to approach them, a gameplan to follow.