AI device for diabetic eye problems approved by FDA

IDx-DR can diagnose diabetic retinopathy, the most common cause of vision loss among the more than 30 million Americans living with diabetes 

By Angela Chen@chengela  Apr 11, 2018, 1:25pm EDT from the verge 

 

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved an artificial intelligence diagnostic device that doesn’t need a specialized doctor to interpret the results. The software program, called IDx-DR, detects a form of eye disease called diabetic retinopathy by looking at photos of the retina.

Diabetic retinopathy (although rare)  is the most common vision complication for more than 30 million Americans living  with diabetes 

Photos are taken by a retinal camera of the patient’s retina are uploaded to IDx-DR  and an algorithm analyzes the images to determine whether the patient has the disease , where too much blood sugar damages the blood vessels in the back of the eye. 

In one clinical trial that used more than 900 images, IDx-DR correctly detected retinopathy about 87 percent of the time, and could correctly identify those who didn’t have the disease about 90 percent of the time. 

The software is unique because it’s autonomous and there’s “not a specialist looking over the shoulder of [this] algorithm,”

 IDx-DR founder Michael Abràmoff told Science News. “It makes the clinical decision on its own.” This means that the technology can be used by a nurse or doctor who’s not an eye specialist, making diagnosis more accessible. 

The benefit..... over 30 million patients wouldn’t need to wait for an eye specialist to be available to get a diagnosis...

There will always be a need for a specialist to check and be responsible when the diagnosis is wrong - but that specialist can be a technician that can check lots - creating other jobs 

Now that the FDA has cleared IDx-DR, it might lead the way to a new slew of autonomous diagnostic tests and the trade-offs they bring. Such as Googles  DeepMind which is using  AI to spot eye disease. 

Cities launching their own Cryptos

The Bob Pritchard Column

Seoul, the capital city of South Korea will soon use a city-funded cryptocurrency called S-Coin for everything from subway rides to kids’ allowances. This is part of a master plan to create a comprehensive blockchain bureaucracy in Seoul.

 

As recently as a couple of months ago, South Korea vocally opposed blockchain for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a fear that North Korea would hack it, and they went  as far as considering taxing crypto-speculation and banning crypto accounts for minors.

 

 

But South Koreans are the biggest crypto-consumers after Japanese and Americans, and Korean crypto-startups raise $89m a month. So as coin-trading hysteria subsided, Seoul hired Samsung’s enterprise IT consultancy in November 2017 to coin their crypto dreams a reality. 

 

As Seoul is the world's leading city in the field of information and communications, they are studying new technologies such as blockchains. S-Coin will be very useful as a payment means in the Korean capital which will help in the funding of public welfare programs or even for compensation of private contractors.

 

The initiative is part of the city’s Blockchain master plan which will help the city publish regulatory guidelines on digital currencies and also devote public resources towards the growing blockchain development sector. On implementation, Seoul will become the largest city to adopt its own digital currency.  The city will be following footsteps of Dubai which is already developing a blockchain digital currency known as emCash which will act as a legal tender for both private and public debts.

 

Other cities which have also floated the aim of using their own digital currencies include Berkeley and CA which are aimed at tokenizing municipal bonds.  The move to join the growing cryptocurrency market has also seen several governments come in like the case with Venezuela which developed its own cryptocurrency called Petro. More to that the Islands of Antigua and Barbuda are already working towards developing their own cryptocurrency exchange platform. In general, many governments are working towards using blockchain to digitize their own fiat currencies.

 

Many countries are preferring digital currencies to reduce their reliance on the US dollar with Marshal Islands developing their own cryptocurrency to avoid the reliance on the dollar.

 In the meantime - here is a map of current landscape

Solve this and win a Nobel Prize

How do the trillions of cells that make up your body stay in touch? Apparently The same way we used to: 

sending notes through the post.

Learning how to read and write “letters” and post them through our intra-body postal system running through our blood, could give us early warning about cancer and Alzheimer’s and potentially finding a cure!!

What we need to do is to work out how to read the mail,  says University of Sydney associate professor Wojciech Chrzanowski, and understand our bodies at a cellular level.

This is how the Prof says it works :- 

All the cells in our body are constantly producing tiny bubbles which the body (or something) fills with a cocktail of DNA and other molecules and are sent into the bloodstream. 

These cells are called extracellular vesicles 

These Cells have special receptors to read the data in the bubbles. The data lets cells send messages to each other. 

Those messages can tell our body what to do.

Professor Chrzanowski is particularly interested in the Stem cells that heal damaged tissue – without physically touching the damage. 

He theorises they are sending out tiny bubbles filled with DNA. When the damaged cell receives the bubble, it follows the DNA instructions and heals itself.

Professor Chrzanowski and teams at the CSIRO are trying to decipher and potentially write or code those messages. 

Imagining being able to inject these regenerating cells into patients with cancer or autoimmune conditions.

It’s like force-feeding the body a message that says: heal thyself.

Want to win a Nobel prize? 

All we need to do is work out how to read the mail.

“You could envisage this cellular system as a post office system – a letter is sent from one cell to another. And the letters contain programs for the cells to run,” says University of Sydney associate professor Wojciech Chrzanowski.

We still don’t quite know how the system works – “If we can figure that out, we’ll probably win a Nobel, to be honest,” says Professor Chrzanowski – but here’s how the leading theory goes

HOw we are trying to solve the puzzle 

This is how Professor Chrzanowski and doctoral candidate Sally Yunsun Kimthey have been learning to read these letters .....

The pair warmed a group of extracellular vesicles with a laser, and then measured their vibrations using a tiny needle about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Hot molecules vibrate at different rates depending on what they are made of. By measuring the vibration, the team could tell exactly what was in each bubble.

It was like reading someone else’s mail without ever opening it.

“This is going to be a pretty important development,” says Professor Andrew Hill, president of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles.

Zuckerberg goes head to head with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and says he agrees with regulation - but the right regulation!

He says “my people will speak to your people !

Graham cut to the chase and asked if Zuckerberg thought Facebook was a monopoly.

“It certainly doesn’t feel like that to me,” Zuckerberg replied, as laughter rippled through the room.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/10/17220934/facebook-monopoly-competitor-mark-zuckerberg-senate-hearing-lindsey-graham?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter via @Verge

Bitcoin banned in India

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday barred banks and financial institutions from dealing with virtual currencies including Bitcoins and said that it was time and again warning users of virtual currencies regarding the risks associated with it. 

What do you think ?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/india-shuts-down-bitcoins-other-virtual-currencies-prohibits-any-dealing-with-banks/articleshow/63627611.cms

The Future Of Work - Skills for the 21st Century

The right Skills will be needed in the new economy - and globalisation and technological change (the so-called “New Machine Age/4th Industrial Revolution”) is making skills that we used to have redundant - FAST!! 

We will need to have the necessary skills needed to cope with this massive change.... 

How  will we be able to upskill ourselves when the necessary skills required are changing so fast?

An OECD survey identified some of the issues that need to be addressed:- 

• The Transition from School to Work 
• Return to Skills 
• Skill Mismatch 
• Skill Use at the Workplace 
• Changing Comparative Advantage and Global Value Chains (GVCs) 
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution - major impact on the demands and the supply of skills 
• Lifelong Learning - this is key 
• Ageing-skills-productivity-wages 
• Inequality
• Wellbeing - Life Balance  

 

A detailed white paper can be found here https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/skills-for-the-21st-century_96e69229-en#page10

 

My big take on this, is that for you to survive and thrive in the modern economy, you need to learn how to learn! 

We were priviliged to host a brilliant mastermind lunch with world leading innovators and disruptors Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

• 65% of jobs on the market don’t exist yet
• 47% of current jobs will be automated
• Only 27% of students will work in their major 
• And most jobs will only exist in 5 industries! 

In the past, you would do a degree, learn your trade, and ou were qualified. That does not cut it any more. Because things are changing so fast, what you learnt a few years ago will be redundant, and if you do not learnt “new way” of doing things, you will be left behind. 

The reality of change is the norm, and is you are to keep up with the times, you will need to break through your comfort zone of what you know, because what you know will become redundant 

Lifelong learning is key 

Is it relevant for you to learn them now (as in a few years time , they will be different anyway) 

 

In 10 years time, jobs that exist today will be redundant, but there will be more jobs that will be needed , which will be augmented by AI. 

What are the 5 things you need to know to survive and thrive in the new economy?

• Get comfortable being uncomfortable
• Know your why (your purpose)
• Learning agility is the bomb
• Unbundle work and talent 
• Reorganisation required reorientation 

 

This is an exciting time for people who are open to change, and are willing to learn how to learn .

We were really priviliged to host a brilliant session by world leading experts, Chris Shipley and Heather McGowan 

Spark published a brilliant article on the future of jobs 

https://issuu.com/bsicomms/docs/spark_mag_jan_final.compressed/c/s4zw7ca

So what do you the skills are that you think will be in demand in 2050?

 

Finalists for World Changing Ideas

AeroFarms, AeroFarms
Aidbox, Aidbox
AI-powered aeroponics, GrowX
Automated cricket farms, Aspire Food Group
The Children’s Scrappy News Service, Going to School
Classy Passport, Classy
The Climate Museum, The Climate Museum
Deep Influence, Golden
Dell ocean-bound plastics packaging program, Dell
A Digital Geneva Convention, Microsoft
Disaster Maps, Facebook
Empatico, Kind Foundation
Equity-Centered Community Design, Creative Reaction Lab
The Fairness Project, The Fairness Project
Flow Kana, Flow Kana
Generation WV Impact Fellowship, Generation West Virginia
Global Social Network for Voters, Re-Invent Democracy
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Career Academy, Aspire
The Impak Coin, Impak Finance
InvestEGGator, Paso Pacífico
Microsilk, Bolt Threads
MissionU, MissionU
The Online Hate Index, Anti-Defamation League
Ontario Basic Income Pilot, Government of Ontario
Patreon, Patreon
The Pay Equity Explorer, ADP
Perspective, Alphabet’s Jigsaw
Project Gigaton, Walmart
Slimbox, Slimbox
Sustainable Product Optimization Tool, L’Oréal
Visa champions a cash-free society, Visa
Wellville, Wellville
Your American Dream Score, Galewill

Which one do you rate?