Sofia University’s Transformative Technology Lab is certainly a unique space in Silicon Valley. The lab exists specifically to support entrepreneurs and innovators who are building new health and wellness-focused tech in an emerging field called transformative technology.

What exactly is transformative technology? The group defines the term as “science-based hardware and software that can produce reliable and positive changes in the human psychological experience.”

Bradford explains that within our psychological experience, or our wellness spectrum, there are a variety of technologies that can support specific conditions, such as anxiety, stress, and depression. One of Bradford’s favorite examples is an app called Ginger.io, which provides emotional support coaching and uses AI for pattern recognition in its users.

“With their permission the app performs a bit of phone monitoring and establishes a baseline for the user,” Bradford said.

“If someone who is depressed or has been depressed wants to avoid another episode, they can establish a baseline with the system. Then, if the person suddenly changes their behavior—if they’re slowly staying up really late or having a texting war—a coach from the system reaches out to them. This helps people get help in advance of an episode. That’s what a lot of this pattern recognition and live data tracking is allowing for.”

Bradford is most inspired by products like this, where user data is gathered then fed back to users in a way that helps them develop a higher level of self-awareness.

On the other end of the wellness spectrum is what Bradford refers to as exponential wellness. It focuses specifically on people who are using technology to push their psychological capabilities. Bradford said, “We have people in our community who are really pushing the mental and emotional capacity of human beings and pushing boundaries on what is possible for transformative leadership.”

Bradford is also interested in companies that are using neuro-stimulation and biofeedback. She gave the example of a new FDA-approved electro-stimulation device by a company called Fisher Wallace. The device straps to a user’s forehead and is proven to effectively reduce depression without using traditional drugs.

One of Bradford’s key messages is that humans take direction and coaching really well, and that we should optimize technology around this notion.

“Many people in the wellness space feel like technology is the problem. I think the problem is not that it’s bad, but that it’s not good enough. It doesn’t have a human-centered design and there aren’t enough people saying, ‘how can we use technology to create intimacy and connection?’”

Image Credit: Patrick Foto / Shutterstock.com

Just a few years ago, microscopes were the primary tool used in cancer diagnoses, but we’ve come a long way since.

“We still look at a microscope, we still look at what organ the cancer started in,” Wender said. “But increasingly we’re looking at the molecular signature. It’s not just the genomics, and it’s not just the genes. It’s also the cellular environment around that cancer. We’re now targeting our therapies to the mutations that are found in that particular cancer.”

Cancer treatments in the past have been largely reactionary, but they don’t need to be. Most cancer is genetic, which means that treatment can be preventative. This is one reason why newer cancer treatment techniques are searching for actionable targets in the specific gene before the cancer develops.

When asked how artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are reshaping clinical trials, Wender acknowledged that how clinical trials have been run in the past won’t work moving forward.

“Our traditional ways of learning about cancer were by finding a particular cancer type and conducting a long clinical trial that took a number of years enrolling patients from around the country. That is not how we’re going to learn to treat individual patients in the future.”

Instead, Wender emphasized the need for gathering as much data as possible, and from as many individual patients as possible. This data should encompass clinical, pathological, and molecular data and should be gathered from a patient all the way through their final outcome. “Literally every person becomes a clinical trial of one,” Wender said.

For the best cancer treatment and diagnostics, Wender says the answer is to make the process collaborative by pulling in resources from organizations and companies that are both established and emerging.

It’s no surprise to hear that the best solutions come from pairing together uncommon partners to innovate.

Image Credit: jovan vitanovski / Shutterstock.com

Whether the implications of a technology are vast or it resonates with one of us personally, here’s the list from some of the Singularity Hub team of what we have our eyes on as we enter the new year.

For a little refresher, these were the technologies our team was fired up about at the start of 2017.

Tweet us the technology you’re excited to watch in 2018 at @SingularityHub.

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

“Given all the noise Bitcoin is making globally in the media, it is driving droves of main street investors to dabble in and learn more about cryptocurrencies. This will continue to raise valuations and drive adoption of blockchain. From Bank of America recently getting a blockchain-based patent approved to the Australian Securities Exchange’s plan to use blockchain, next year is going to be chock-full of these stories. Coindesk even recently spotted a patent filing from Apple involving blockchain. From ‘China’s Ethereum’, NEO, to IOTA to Golem to Qtum, there are a lot of interesting cryptos to follow given the immense numbers of potential applications. Hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride in 2018!”

–Kirk Nankivell, Website Manager

There Is No One Technology to Watch

“Next year may be remembered for advances in gene editing, blockchain, AI—or most likely all these and more. There is no single technology to watch. A number of consequential trends are advancing and converging. This general pace of change is exciting, and it also contributes to spiking anxiety. Technology’s invisible lines of force are extending further and faster into our lives and subtly subverting how we view the world and each other in unanticipated ways. Still, all the near-term messiness and volatility, the little and not-so-little dramas, the hype and disillusion, the controversies and conflict, all that smooths out a bit when you take a deep breath and a step back, and it’s my sincere hope and belief the net result will be more beneficial than harmful.”

–Jason Dorrier, Managing Editor

‘Fake News’ Fighting Technology

“It’s been a wild ride for the media this year with the term ‘fake news’ moving from the public’s peripheral and into mainstream vocabulary. The spread of ‘fake news’ is often blamed on media outlets, but social media platforms and search engines are often responsible too. (Facebook still won’t identify as a media company—maybe next year?) Yes, technology can contribute to spreading false information, but it can also help stop it. From technologists who are building in-article ‘trust indicator’ features, to artificial intelligence systems that can both spot and shut down fake news early on, I’m hopeful we can create new solutions to this huge problem. One step further: if publishers step up to fix this we might see some faith restored in the media.”

–Alison E. Berman, Digital Producer

Pay-as-You-Go Home Solar Power

“People in rural African communities are increasingly bypassing electrical grids (which aren’t even an option in many cases) and installing pay-as-you-go solar panels on their homes. The companies offering these services are currently not subject to any regulations, though they’re essentially acting as a utility. As demand for power grows, they’ll have to come up with ways to efficiently scale, and to balance the humanitarian and capitalistic aspects of their work. It’s fascinating to think traditional grids may never be necessary in many areas of the continent thanks to this technology.”

–Vanessa Bates Ramirez, Associate Editor

Virtual Personal Assistants

“AI is clearly going to rule our lives, and in many ways it already makes us look like clumsy apes. Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant are promising first steps toward a world of computers that understand us and relate to us on an emotional level. I crave the day when my Apple Watch coaches me into healthier habits, lets me know about new concerts nearby, speaks to my self-driving Lyft on my behalf, and can help me respond effectively to aggravating emails based on communication patterns. But let’s not brush aside privacy concerns and the implications of handing over our personal data to megacorporations. The scariest thing here is that privacy laws and advertising ethics do not accommodate this level of intrusive data hoarding.”

–Matthew Straub, Director of Digital Engagement (Hub social media)

Solve for Learning: Educational Apps for Children in Conflict Zones

“I am most excited by exponential technology when it is used to help solve a global grand challenge. Educational apps are currently being developed to help solve for learning by increasing accessibility to learning opportunities for children living in conflict zones. Many children in these areas are not receiving an education, with girls being 2.5 times more likely than boys to be out of school. The EduApp4Syria project is developing apps to help children in Syria and Kashmir learn in their native languages. Mobile phones are increasingly available in these areas, and the apps are available offline for children who do not have consistent access to mobile networks. The apps are low-cost, easily accessible, and scalable educational opportunities.

–Paige Wilcoxson, Director, Curriculum & Learning Design

Image Credit: Triff / Shutterstock.com

As an anesthesiologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University, Chander specializes in measuring brain activity and depth-of-consciousness in patients using tools like high-frequency EEG technology.

During her interview, Chander outlined how CRISPR gene editing and stem cells are being applied in neuroscience. She said, “We are beginning to rewire the brain from the inside out. We’re cutting out things that don’t work at the level of the nucleus. We’re actually correcting diseases before they even express themselves.”

As excited as Chander is about the advances in her field, she’s well aware of the precautions we need to be taking while innovating in neuroscience.

Chander believes this is an ethical conversation that needs to happen across the board and in every country. She warns we can’t just leave the conversation to neuroscientists or entrepreneurs alone.

“One of our biggest ethical problems is: all of this technology that’s hacking the neural code can non-invasively read brainwaves in a way we’ve never been able to do before,” Chander said. “There’s a group at the University of Alabama that actually found that if you’re wearing an EEG cap and someone’s typing in a password, you can hack the password. Using optogenetics we can implant false memories into mice.”

At the end of the interview Chander highlighted both the positive and cautionary power of technology, and said it’s up to us to direct its course.

“I like to remind everybody that this technology has the power to transform humanity in the most beautiful way possible, but we have to remember there are going to be certain things we need to consider, like the ramifications of this technology on a global scale.”

Image Credit: Orawan Pattarawimonchai / Shutterstock.com

While it’s best to reflect and revisit goals throughout the year, sometimes it just doesn’t happen, and there’s nothing like a captivating book to get your mind moving again in the right direction (like towards that skill you promised yourself you’d pick up last year).

Our team at Singularity University loves to geek out on subjects ranging from emerging technologies and science fiction to leadership development and mental fortitude.

With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite books from this year (and a few classics) to get you activated. There’s nothing like a new year to get kickstarted on what you want to learn. We hope this list helps you do just that.

(Tweet us your favorite book of 2017 here.)

FUTURE

Homo Deus
Yuval Noah Harari

WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us
Tim O’Reilly

TECHNOLOGY

Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality
Jaron Lanier

Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future
Andrew McAfee, Erik Brynjolfsson

Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You
Geoffrey G. Parker,‎ Marshall W. Van Alstyne,‎ Sangeet Paul Choudary

SCIENCE FICTION

The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Trilogy)
Douglas Adams

LEADERSHIP

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Simon Sinek

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
Daniel Coyle 

MENTAL FITNESS

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy
Sheryl Sandberg,‎ Adam Grant 

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
Tim Ferriss

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F@$K
Mark Manson

Still looking for more great books? Check out last year’s winter reading list.

Image Credit: AndrewSt / Shutterstock.com

Brea was a healthy PhD student at Harvard University, about to marry the love of her life, when she suddenly fell ill and her body began to fail her.

With doctors initially telling Brea it was “all in her head,” she grabbed a camera and began filming her experience as she discovered she, in fact, had chronic fatigue syndrome. In addition to documenting her own journey, Brea used social media and Skype to connect with others around the world suffering from the condition.

The result is Unrest, a vulnerable personal documentary of Brea’s journey with chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as intimate portraits of others in similar situations.

“This is a disease that has been stigmatized, and as a consequence, neglected for decades,” Brea said. “I’ve been spending the last five years living this and doing a lot of work in advocacy, and also in this film I’ve been making…I think the more I learn, I’ve wrestled with this question of why. Why are there no treatments, and why have patients been neglected for so many decades?”

The film premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival and will also air on PBS.  Unrest in virtual reality premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, an example of how VR can powerfully transport viewers into another person’s reality—as painful as that reality may be.

Image Credit: Unrest / Jennifer Brea (Shella Films)

But what if research and development of medical devices was democratized? What if the practitioners who work most closely with patients were brought into the product innovation pipeline?

This is what Anna Young, co-founder at MakerNurse and MakerHealth, spoke about last week at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine summit.

Young believes nurses, when empowered with the right tools, can use their own ingenuity to create effective medical devices. This is exactly what MakerNurse is after.

MakerNurse was launched in 2013 as a community of nurses focused on creating inventive new solutions that improve patient care. The MakerNurse community is paired with the founding company, MakerHealth, which builds clinical makerspaces in hospitals to provide training and tools for nurses to create new medical devices.

Historically, nurses have always been makers and creative problem solvers for patient needs. In fact, from the early 1900s until the late 1970s, nurses even had a publication devoted to showcasing new medical devices and outlining how other nurses can re-create them.

Considering how closely nurses work with their patients, it makes sense that this would be a powerful group for inventing new patient solutions.

Young says, “Nurses are faster than a medical device company and they’re closer to the patient than an engineer ever will be…the timelines, turnarounds, and the feedback loops that nurses have with their patients are unlike anything else inside of our healthcare system.”

Back in 2009 Young and her team first dove into this idea during a partnership with MIT’s Little Devices Lab and the International American Development Bank.

Together, they launched a health prototyping tool kit across Nicaragua called MEDIKit. It was a test to see whether mixing in-lab technology with local supply chains would change how medical devices were made.

From this initial idea, the team took it a step further.

Young says, “We thought, ‘What if we installed a makerspace in Nicaragua? What if we get a clinical makerspace and give people access to it?’”

The team installed a makerspace between a hospital and a nursing school. The space was 100 feet away from the hospital, but even this small distance proved to be too far. The hospital staff was too busy to leave and use the space.

This frustrating discovery, however, helped the team learn that they needed to build the makerspaces inside the hospital, which is exactly what MakerHealth now does. What’s inside the spaces?

Through the MakerNurse community, Young’s team conducted a research study to learn what tools and materials are most critical at the point of care.

“We overlaid this information with the tools and materials we’ve been using inside the lab to land on what’s inside the MakerHealth space today,” Young explained.

As MakerHealth has grown, they’ve learned that providing tools alone isn’t always enough; education in technology literacy for nurses is critical too.

With this in mind, the team is building programs to create technology literacy for practitioners, and is also working to build a platform to support a global network of health makers to engage in peer-to-peer learning.

Nurses aren’t the only people empowered when given the necessary tools for innovation. The patient is the true beneficiary of democratizing the medical innovation process.

It’s a great example of how a new shiny product alone isn’t always the best solution. Sometimes the best solutions are scrappy and created in close feedback loops packed with insights from real users—in this case, patients.

Image Credit: Romaset / Shutterstock.com

Consumer virtual reality is going through a rough patch as high expectations and hype have deflated somewhat, but when VR does work, it can feel a bit like magic.

At Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine Summit this week, the audience learned about fascinating virtual reality applications within a mix of medical contexts.

Here’s a look at two we found particularly interesting.

Surgical Training in Virtual Reality

Shafi Ahmed, co-founder of Virtual Medics and Medical Realities, spoke again this year at Exponential Medicine. Last year we wrote about Ahmed’s efforts to solve the huge global shortage of trained surgeons:

“According to the Lancet commission on global surgery, the surgical workforce would have to double to meet the needs of basic surgical care for the developing world by 2030. Dr. Ahmed imagines being able to train thousands of surgeons simultaneously in virtual reality.”

With this in mind, Ahmed made a splash back in 2014 when he reached 14,000 surgeons across 100 different countries by using Google Glass to stream a surgical training session. In 2016, Ahmed took this a step further by live-streaming a cancer surgery in virtual reality that was shot in 360-degree video while he removed a colon tumor from a patient.

Ahmed’s philosophy is clear. He says, “Forget one-to-one. My idea is one to many. I want to share knowledge with the masses.” To achieve this, his company Medical Realities is building the world’s first interactive VR training module for surgeons. After these successes, Ahmed began searching for other low-cost, high-tech platforms to leverage for surgical training. He landed on social media.

Last year, Ahmed used Snapchat glasses to record an operation in ten-second clips that were uploaded to his Snapchat story. It was a huge success, receiving two million views and 100,000 YouTube downloads. Ahmed said, “It’s incredible reach, and it’s free. That’s the kind of world we live in.” Ahmed also streamed Twitter’s first live operation.

Now, Ahmed is working with virtual reality company Thrive to push the boundaries of remote collaboration in virtual reality. The platform enables doctors to remotely log into a shared virtual office to discuss patient cases. Ahmed showed an example of four doctors from four different locations who logged into a virtual office together to discuss a patient’s case in real time. Inside the virtual office the doctors were even able to access and review patients’ medical files.

Virtual Reality for Therapeutics

Brennan Spiegel, a pioneer of VR in healthcare at Cedars-Sinai, has witnessed firsthand the positive impact of using virtual reality with patients for therapeutic treatment. At Cedars-Sinai, Spiegel leads a team that studies how technologies like smartphone apps, VR, wearable biosensors, and social media can improve health outcomes.

Some of the findings have been incredible.

Spiegel told the story of a young adult suffering from severe Crohn’s disease, which forced him to spend 100 days of the last year in the hospital. The most healing environment he can think of, however, is his grandmother’s living room. Spiegel’s team was able to place a Samsung 360 camera in the grandmother’s living room then give the patient a VR headset to virtually transport him there. The experience nearly brought him to tears and is a perfect example of how VR can make patients in hospital treatment more comfortable.

Spiegel’s team also had success using VR to help men with high blood pressure. Inside of the VR program, users are transported into a kitchen and educated on which types of food contain sodium. The program then brings users inside a human body, where they can see the targeted impact of the sodium intake.

Spiegel’s dream is to see a VR pharmacy where the right treatment experience is mapped to the right patient.

Virtual and augmented reality are creating novel methods in health care for treatment, training, and doctor collaboration. These are just a few examples of practical uses showing VR’s potential applied to medicine. In many ways, however, this is only the beginning of what’s to come as VR and AR mature.

Technology doesn’t always need to feel like magic, but when it can for a struggling patient or doctor seeking access to training, that’s an extraordinary thing for health care.

Image Credit: Anatomy Insider / Shutterstock.com

It seems, however, that it’s a condition we’ve come to accept.

“It’s acceptable for some people to work 40 hours a week at a minimum wage that keeps them below the poverty level,” Dr. Gloria Wilder said to the audience at Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine. Wilder is a street doctor, CEO of Core Health, and VP of innovation and preventive health at Centene Corporation.

Poverty isn’t the only such condition the US tolerates. We’ve also accepted a healthcare system divided by social class.

“We have economic segregation in health care, and we have for a long time,” Wilder says. “Depending on what card is in your pocket, you can determine what you can buy in the healthcare system… 80 percent of the impact of health has to do with where you live, how you live, and the environment you grow up in.”

On stage with Wilder was Josh Lee, principle at Deloitte Monitor and specialist in healthcare strategy. Lee said the US spends $10,000 per capita on health care, which is more than the 11 other wealthiest nations in the world. Yet we have the lowest life expectancy and quality of care.

“We are getting a very low ROI,” Lee says. “We’re spending 30 percent more than the rest of the OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)…and we’re spending 30 percent less than our peers on social support and public health.”

Class Shouldn’t Determine Care

Disparity in medical treatment is embedded in America’s healthcare system. It’s a painful truth, and the consequences of limited access to quality doctors and health insurance often creates devastatingly different health outcomes for patients with different income levels.

Wilder paints an example of this from when she worked as a pediatrician in Washington DC.

“On one side of the city, there are seven academic institutions and hospitals. On the other side of the city, there’s one. 47 percent of the children live on the side of the city where there’s one hospital. It had, in the past, no pediatrics at that hospital. As a pediatrician, I used to tell mothers whose kids were having an asthma attack to call a cab. I’d say, ‘Don’t call an ambulance. When the cab gets you halfway across the bridge to the other side of the city, call the ambulance, because then the baby will be taken to a pediatric hospital and will live.’”

Wilder wrapped up her portion of the talk and handed the microphone to Lee Sanders, associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, who posed the question he wrestles with daily: “How do we create a care system that meets everyone’s health needs?”

Sanders outlined three primary barriers to health equity that determine outcomes: chronic care coordination, preventative care, and health literacy. His model examines these barriers and assesses the risks they pose to the most disadvantaged population groups.

“For every condition, there’s efficacy treatment or prevention, and efficacy technology. Our job is to create access to that technology for everybody who needs it,” said Sanders. Efficacy technology can range from vaccines to chemotherapy to nutrition for a pregnant woman.

Social factors determine more than 50 percent of health outcomes, and knowing this, Sanders urged the audience to think about health technology within the social context of treatment. Specifically, it’s critical to view the relationship between social and biological factors as intertwined rather than opposed, and to make technology solutions that mirror this elastic association. 

“In the US, one in four children live in poverty. We have technology that can help each and every one of those children,” said Sanders. “We have immunizations, and screening, and early nutrition programs, and early developmental programs, but fewer than 50 percent of those children are getting that technology that we know works.”

It appears technology solutions alone cannot solve our nation’s health problems if they are not created to function within the social context of a patient’s real life. New health technology must be paired with effective systems focused on creating timely access and distribution of services. 

Our Shared Challenge to Tackle

Wilder, Lee, and Sanders all shared a common goal and challenge for the room.

They want to see entrepreneurs and people beyond the scope of medical practitioners start harnessing the power of innovation to disrupt the social determinants of health. In doing so, they hope to create better and more equal health care outcomes in the country.

“This is going to require creative energies from the people in this room,” says Sanders. “Not more pediatricians or social scientists, but you, entrepreneurs, thinkers, people who are developing the technologies of the future to make sure that we marry high tech with high touch to get services to the people that need them.”

Though there are examples of innovative health programs that are making a positive impact, it seems like many remain siloed. UberHEALTH, for example, could offer on-demand care, but this is likely a service that only the wealthy could afford.

An example on the other end of the spectrum is the HAIR Campaign program in Maryland. It’s an incredible community-based intervention program to make barbershops and beauty salons spaces where the community can access health education and medical services. But this program seems to lack a technical component.

There’s a long road ahead for blending public health work and health technology, but the outcome could be powerful.

Image Credit: Nickolay Khoroshkov / Shutterstock.com

Google’s Learning Software Learns to Write Learning Software
Tom Simonite | Wired
“In a project called AutoML, Google’s researchers have taught machine-learning software to build machine-learning software. In some instances, what it comes up with is more powerful and efficient than the best systems the researchers themselves can design. Google says the system recently scored a record 82 percent at categorizing images by their content.”

TRANSPORTATION

Autonomous Cars Without Human Drivers Will Be Allowed on California Roads Starting Next Year
Andrew J. Hawkins | The Verge
“There are currently 42 companies testing some 285 autonomous vehicles that are licensed with the DMV, officials said. Nearly 1,000 safety drivers are licensed to test those vehicles, but after the state’s rules go into effect, companies would be allowed to deploy cars without any human behind the wheel.”

DISASTER RELIEF

Puerto Rico Looks to Alphabet’s X Project Loon Balloons to Restore Cell Service
Larry Greenemeier | Scientific American
“Puerto Rico will be Project Loon’s biggest challenge since Alphabet’s X (previously known as Google X) officially launched the effort in 2013. X’s plan is to float the solar-powered, helium-filled balloons about 19 kilometers above Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for up to six months, creating a wireless network on the ground covering nearly 7,800 square kilometers.”

INTERNET AND SOCIETY

First Evidence That Online Dating Is Changing the Nature of Society
Emerging Technology from the arXiv | MIT Technology Review
“While most people were unlikely to date one of their best friends, they were highly likely to date people who were linked with their group of friends; a friend of a friend, for example…Online dating has changed that. Today, online dating is the second most common way for heterosexual couples to meet. For homosexual couples, it is far and away the most popular.”

VIRTUAL REALITY

The Story Behind ‘Melita’, the Breathtaking Animated Short Unveiled at Oculus Connect
Janko Roettgers | Variety
“ ‘Melita’ features a number of wide shots followed by dramatic camera movement to take you up and close to the action, or transition from one scene to another. Motion also plays a big part within individual scenes, where slow drifts of the camera add to the emotion, and visualize how a world is fading away before the viewer’s eyes. That type of cinematic language hasn’t often been used in VR, much less in animated VR.”

Image Credit: BARBAROGA / Shutterstock.com