Sunday 9 October 2016

comedy helps sharpen my observational skills.

When I see a post such as this, I get more convinced with the thoughts that God is not partial. He could not have made some to be this innovative and make others be consumers only. We know that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), with a seed of greatness within. Why then can I not be in this list of innovators? Why are you not on the list my dear friends? These are questions we must ponder on and get an answer to so that we can move from where we are to where we ought to be.

I have found the answer for myself, but, I do not know about you. What I have come to know is that not all are innovators, but all carry the seed of greatness to do something spectacular, to cause a positive change to happen in their environment. We are all created to add value, to solve a problem and to impact our environment like no other. Hence, I am out to make a difference.

I am intrigued by this article, and I bet you will be as well. Please stay on with me and be inspired by the works of others, that you may do greater things too.








Jagdish Chaturvedi, 32
InnAccel
This doctor can laugh about the complex path he took to becoming an innovator.
“I invented a low-cost ear, nose, and throatENTimaging device. So I call myself the first ENTrepreneur! Sorrycheesy joke; I’m also an amateur standup comedian. I love performing. It’s how I de-stress. But I also find comedy helps sharpen my observational skills.
“Those skills helped me invent Entraview, which has helped 200,000 patients. As a trainee doctor I saw many farmers with advanced throat cancer. I discovered that expensive imaging systems were only available in major cities, so rural doctors relied on outdated mirrors and headlamps. I asked my boss why no one had tried attaching endoscopes to small off-the-shelf cameras. He said, ‘Why don’t you?’
“Entraview was a big learning curve for me. I worked with a design firm but got too involved trying to create a one-size-fits-all device. I’d nearly exhausted my funds when my boss said, ‘Go learn the right way to do this.



Chaturvedi advises a patient’s relatives and uses an early version of the Entraview to examine a man’s ear in Bangalore



The prototype attached to an off-the-shelf camera.


The Stanford-India Biodesign program teaches Indian doctors and engineers how to invent. Their process showed me where I’d gone wrong and gave me the connections to arrange a pitch with Medtronic. We simplified and focused on ears. Not the original goal, but the path of least resistance to market, and now the platform can evolve.
“I’ve since contributed to 18 medical-device inventions, and I’m now clinical lead at a med-tech incubator, InnAccel, where I help multiple startups while still practicing medicine, to keep me grounded with clinical needs.
“India imports 75 percent of its medical tech. We have great inventors, but most make the same mistakes because they don’t get the innovation process. The first step is finding the right team.”
as told to Edd Gent


Link:    https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2016/humanitarian/jagdish-chaturvedi/



Thursday 6 October 2016

AN INNOVATOR

Understanding that you have the seed of greatness in you, is to spot a problem and do what it takes to find a solution. In today's article, we see a young woman in her early 30s, who decided to help people suffering from cancer as a result of the fact that she lost her mother to cancer. She stands as an example of how people create solutions to long-standing problems.
Dear reader, what problem faces you and your community, what can you do to make it better? Tomorrow may be too late. Be inspired by this article and be on the list of world changers. You have got what it takes. 

Enjoy reading.


Muyinatu Bell, 32

Johns Hopkins University

Creating clearer Imaging to spot cancer earlier and more accurately.
When biomedical engineer Muyinatu Lediju Bell was an undergraduate at MIT, her mother died of breast cancer. Bell thought her mother might have survived if she had been diagnosed sooner, so she decided to investigate what makes some ultrasound images blurry, a problem that limits a doctor’s ability to screen for and diagnose cancer and other diseases.


As a doctoral candidate at Duke University, Bell developed and patented a novel signal processing technique that produces clearer ultrasound images in real time. The solution could particularly help diagnose problems in people who are obese, because fat tissue can scatter and distort ultrasound waves, delaying the detection of a serious disease. “I think it’s unfair that a long-standing technology does not serve a huge group of people that should be able to benefit from it,” she says.


Beyond ultrasound, Bell is now working to improve another type of noninvasive medical imaging technique. Called photoacoustic imaging, it uses a combination of light and sound to produce images of tissues in the body. She is especially interested in using it for real-time visualization of blood vessels during neurosurgeries to lower the risk of accidental harm to the carotid artery, which supplies blood to the brain. Her lab at Johns Hopkins plans to launch a pilot study of the technology in patients in 2017.

—Emily Mullin




copied from: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2016/inventor/muyinatu-bell/