What’s the next big thing?

April 2nd, 2009 · Comments

Right after I started college in the early 1990s, I discovered the Lynx text browser for World Wide Web (WWW). A few months later, I "upgraded" to the Mosaic Browser, and later moved to use Netscape Browser. I was like a kid in the candy store — it was amazing how much one could do on the web. I was excited, inspired, and full of ideas.

I haven’t had this feeling for a long time. The Internet has been a huge growth engine in the past decade. But, what’s the next big thing?

I recently saw something that really got me excited, inspired, and full of ideas, again.

It was on the Oprah Show last week. Dr. Oz mentioned the "Intelligent Toilet" system from Japan that can measure sugar levels in urine, blood pressure, body fat and weight.

In other words, it is a medical device that moves medical test from hospital lab to your home.

This is a very powerful idea. Just think about the health benefits and medical care cost saving due to early disease detection. The potential benefit is enormous. How big will this market be? One could argue that every family should have at least one "intelligence toilet" installed. The market is potentially huge if the price becomes affordable.

I think there are many forms of medical lab tests could be moved from hospitals to homes. Personalized, technology-driven, home-based preventive medicine could be an important step toward cost-effective preventive care.

There are technical, medical, and regulatory hurdles we have to overcome. But, I believe this could be the "next big thing". Oprah joked on her show that the "smart toilet" could be our own bailout program. Well, she might just be right.

Excellent resources on innovation:

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Tags: Innovation

Viewing 3 Comments

TedHoward 04/02/2009 09:23 PM 1 point
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It's amazing what you can learn from excrement, isn't it? The basic idea isn't new but it is awesome. Microsoft is actively working on it (http://healthvault.com/Persona... and I assume that Google Health is doing the same.
One of my visions of health monitoring involves subtly doing their job at night while you sleep. They could gently take your blood pressure, resting heartrate, of course monitor your sleep cycles. A little intelligence and they could take a nightly EKG and EEG by placing electrical contacts, just to check for any new abnormalities. That is, of course, a distant vision.

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GeekMBA360 04/03/2009 11:00 AM 1 point
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Thanks for comments, Ted. I checked the Microsoft Health Vault link. Very interesting stuff.

I also found something interesting at work recently: my company participated in a program called "health road" -- as employee, we will get a small health insurance premium reduction if we participate in this program. As part of the program, each of us could purchase a little device that tied to our shoes and measures how many steps one walks each day. The employer has installed a wireless device at the company entrance. So, every time we walk by the company door, the data on our pedometer is synced with the server. We can then check out daily progress on the web. Quite a few folks are taking their health much more seriously now, start exercise regularly, lost weights, etc. This stuff really works!

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TedHoward 04/03/2009 11:17 AM 1 point
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That puts a smile on my face. I want one in my home. Then in my parents' homes with web-based access for me. :)

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