A keynote by Robin Farmanfarmaian explaining how exponential medical technologies (genetic sequencing, microbiome science, AI, sensors, 3D printing) empower patients to act as CEOs of their own healthcare. She recounts her personal story of misdiagnosis and recovery, argues that technology enables personalized medicine and continuous measurement, and offers four practical 'Genius Network' tips: increase medical awareness, metricize health, see opportunity, and act as the CEO of your care team.
Chapters
When you hear the word technology, almost everyone in this room thinks about how we use technology to acquire new clients, sell more of our products, and keep our customers and clients as raving fans. There's another technology that most of you don't know about, and that is medical technology that can and will improve your health. That's why Robin Farman Farmian is here with you today. Robin is a recognized global expert on medical technology, having personally started three medical technology companies and having been employed by 12 others as one of their first employees. She's an expert in everything from genetic testing to sleep disorders. Please don't let her physical size of just 90 pounds, her boundless positive energy, and her unique giggle fool you. This is one brilliant lady in a field everyone in this room needs to learn more about. Because if you are not now, you will be at some point in your life, a patient. Robin's title is the patient as CEO using technology to maximize your health. Please welcome my friend and a person I love, Robin Farman Farmyan. Thank you, dear.
So, hi, everyone. Yes, so I am Robyn Farman Farmyan. Give you a little more background on me. You heard. I am a serial entrepreneur. I work on the really big problems like sleep apnea and tissue engineering. Now, the reason I decided to become an entrepreneur is because as a teenager, I was misdiagnosed. Ended up resulting in 43 hospitalizations and six major surgeries. Now, when you're facing surgery, and especially when you're a kid, right, you go from hospital system to hospital system looking for the very best doctors out there. But none of my doctors ever looked at me and said, you know what, Robin? Let's hold off on these surgeries because you're so young and technology is moving so quickly, it could provide some solutions in the near future. None of my doctors ever looked at me and said, you know what, Robyn? Technology is hope. But technology is hope. In fact, had digital health, it and just the sheer amount of information we now have access to as patients existed. When I was a teenager, I most likely would not have lost three organs at the age of 26. This is seven years after they had taken out my entire large intestine. My doctors were telling me I was cured, but I wasn't. And I was in extreme pain. So they eventually put me up to 80 milligrams a day of methadone. Gigantic dose of opiates. And they were telling me my next step would be a morphine pump surgically implanted into my spine. I was like, are you kidding me? I was 26 years old. And they were telling me that was going to be essentially the rest of my life. So I went home that night and I fired my entire healthcare team. Every single one of them. I rebuilt it from the ground floor, got diagnosed correctly off all the methadone, put on a drug called remicade, and within 24 hours of that first dose, after a 13 year misdiagnosis, I went into remission overnight. So that's what I'm up here to talk to you about. How the convergence of exponential technology is really empowering what I like to call the healthcare consumer to be not only a key decision maker, but really the one in the driver's seat. It's also disrupting this whole victim God scenario that we have had in healthcare up until now. Now, I'm not calling patients victims, but when you are a patient, you do feel victimized. You feel victimized by your health insurance bills, by the hospital bills, by the doctor's waiting room, and mostly by your own body. And with the exception of a couple of surgeons that I know, doctors aren't really God. And we've been going in there and expecting them to fix us in our eight minute doctor visits. That's not realistic now is it? We are entering a perfect storm of technological advancements really enabling what I like to call the era of the patient. Now, in my book and in my 60 minute talks, I do deep dives into these technology areas. Today I'm going to give you some high learnings. So, medical science. You heard from Peter Diamandis, or as Joe calls him, Peter Diamonds yesterday, talking about genetic sequencing. Not only is it on the exponential trend, but it is dramatically outperforming Moore's law. Now let me tell you why this is important for patients. Because it means personalized medicine. A treatment plan based on the individual versus the one size fits all model that we have had in healthcare up until now. And it's also catalyzing the microbiome. I want to raise the hands in the room. How many people know about the microbiome? Wow, that is the most I have ever seen in any conference raise their hands. So good job for being informed patients here. So the microbiome are the colonies of bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in and on our bodies. Symbiotic relationship. We need them, they need us. Right now. Let me give you a couple of scenarios. Imagine I have Crohn's disease. I bank my microbiome when I'm not feeling well just to get a transplant back when I am. Same way you would bank Umbilical cord blood. And if you think about it, we are less than 50% human cells. We have not been taking that into account in medicine all of these years. Give you one other scenario that blows my mind every time I say it. Imagine some of these diseases that we thought were genetic, in fact turn out to be infectious through the microbiome. Which brings me to genius network tip number one. Medical awareness. Knowing what is out there and coming down the pipeline is a huge advantage for everybody in this room. Healthcare professionals are trained in silos. I bet if you went to the majority of your doctors, they would not know anything about the microbiome. But I think it's one of the most disruptive of things to happen to medicine in 100 years. All right, so let's talk a little bit about software. You heard about AI yesterday with Peter. Let me show you what is happening in medicine. This is IBM, Watson. Look at those stats. Can a human being can do that? No, I don't think so. That's just what it studied about five years ago when I went to medical school. Combine that with the fact that there are over 10,000 known human diseases. How is a physician supposed to keep up in their sheer amount of information and research coming at them in their individual silo, let alone medicine as a whole? AI absolutely can, and Watson has opened up their API for anyone to use. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a Fortune 500 company, you have access to using Watson. Not only that, but they just recently opened up for free their quantum computing section. So if you own a company, you have access to IBM's quantum computers. Now, why would they do that besides, you know, obvious revenue stream when you're talking about the Watson side? Because AI improves more quickly the more it's used now for patients. This is a really big deal because that means we can use companies that have access to one of the world's most important and powerful computers. Right? An AI and mental health care space. Wow. This is already outperforming therapists and psychiatrists. Give you one example, Ellie. It's decision support software for PTSD and depression. Not only does Ellie analyze the responses to queries like a normal therapy visit, but tone of voice, facial expression, and even the subtle way you string words together over a period of time, whether that is days, weeks, months, or years. Human beings can't do that. That's the kind of app I want running in the back of my iPhone. All right, so let's talk a little bit about hardware. Sensors are becoming ubiquitous. In fact, by 2019, it is expected that the wearable tech and sensor market is going to be a $50 billion a year industry. Massive opportunity space for entrepreneurs. But the cool thing about technology is it makes things seamless. We are seeing things go way beyond the Fitbit that everyone knows about. Things like socks that measure gait for neurodegenerative diseases. Compression shirts with clinical grade EKG data, subcutaneous meaning under the skin, sensors that are epidermal meaning tattooed on. Even an entirely new category called ingestibles where we're putting sensors on pills. Now what this does brings me to Genius Network tip number two. Metricize. Just like in business, if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist. When you start measuring things like your biometric activity, it gives you the opportunity to improve. And 3D printing. So as you heard, we can do about 260,000 different colors in one print job. We can now print over 300 different materials. Really cool. In healthcare, we are seeing titanium body parts, casts with holes in them for scratching. Even under five $3D printed stethoscopes. This is Amy Mullins. She is a double limb amputee, right? She's lost both of her legs at an early age. She doesn't think of herself as disabled. She has 12 sets of legs. If she wants to be six feet tall one day, she is. She wants to be five, six, she is. If she wants to run faster than every single person in this room, well, she's already done. That brings me to Genius Network tip number three. Opportunity. What in your life are you looking at that you should be looking at as an opportunity? I've been in pretty extreme pain every day of my life for 27 years. I do not use it as a crutch. I do not use it as an excuse. I use it as a catalyst to change medicine and infrastructure. So just like with banking and education, infrastructure and content are separating. You are no longer constrained to a physical venue just to receive health care. In fact, you are not constrained to a physical venue to do just about anything, from your job to your personal relationships. Which brings me to my last tip. Genius Network tip number four. Be the CEO. And I like to compare this to the CEO of a corporation. You're not an expert in engineering, marketing, finance, operational management, right? You hire the best, they do their jobs report back to you, and together as a team, you decide on a direction for the company to go into. But as CEO, you are the one who is ultimately responsible for that. That vision is carried out and the company overall is successful. So I ask why should being a patient be any different? Technology is really enabling us to have health care when we want it, where we want it, how we want it received. So I want to leave you with this thought. Now that you're the CEO of your own healthcare team, and I mean every single person in this room, you are now the CEO of your own health care team. How are you going to start to change your behavior today? Thank you.
