Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year 2011!

A message I received for the New Year which nicely captures all that I wish for you & your family ...


H appiness depends upon your outlook on life.

A ttitude is just as important as ability.

P assion, find yours this year!

P ositive thoughts make everything easier.

Y ou are unique, with special gifts, use them.



N ew beginnings with a new year.

E nthusiasm a true secret of success.

W ishes may they turn into goals.



Y ears go by to quickly, enjoy them.

E nergy may you have lots of it.

A ppreciation of life, don't take it for granted.

R elax take the time to relax in this coming year.


I wish you and yours a very Happy,Healthy,Safe and Prosperous 2011. Keep visiting and sharing feedback. Thanks for your support.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Good bye Doctor! Hello Smart Phone!

Good bye Doctor! Hello Smart Phone!: The emergence of the Smart Phone as a Healthcare Delivery Platform

Move out of the way! Doctor. Just when you thought rising liability insurance costs and declining Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements were your biggest worries, you have a new one emerging on the horizon - the evolution of the Smartphone into a Primary Care Physician.

The scenario is not as farfetched as it sounds. A recent survey by Pew on the adoption rate of mobile health ("mHealth") apps found that a full 9 percent of American mobile phone users said they have a mobile health app on their phone that enables them to "track" or "manage" their health. Another recent study compiled by research2guidance, predicts that more than a third of 1.4 billion smartphone users in 2015 will be running some kind of mobile healthcare application.

Over a six month period from Feb 2010 to Sep 2010 each of the Smartphone Applications Platform: Apple App Store, Google Android and Blackberry App World have shown robust double digit growths in the number of Health Apps available. The composite growth across all platforms was 78% with Apple growing 66.6% from 4276 Health apps to 7136; Google showing a growth of 156.6% from 505 to 1296; and Blackberry showing a phenomenal growth of 141.4% from 140 to 338.

Smartphone and other mobile healthcare applications include those for diabetes and other chronic diseases' management, hospital based RFID and the use of technologies such as Bluetooth and ZigBee for health and fitness monitoring. A number of SMS messaging and Health 2.0 based medical applications are also emerging.

Smartphone Healthcare apps seem set to emerge as a differentiator in the increasingly crowded and competitive healthcare insurance marketplace (USP: "My smartphone apps to track your health are better than the competition" ) as healthcare players (Insurance companies, Pharmaceutical Companies, Device companies, Providers etc) queue to launch their own apps or co-branded apps as promotional tools or potential revenue streams.

Joining the bandwagon could be telecom or technology companies who will attempt to backward integrate into the healthcare sector now that they have a foot in the door through their control of the newly emerging healthcare delivery platform - the smartphone. AT&T recently launched AT&T For Health. The objectives for this group sound almost like that of a Healthcare plan: “combine mobility technologies, devices, connectivity, and applications to help drive down medical costs and deliver improved patient outcomes." These services aim to help healthcare providers and patients manage disease, stay adherence, age in place, manage weight loss, and monitor wellness.

As telecom companies step in the same "Health and Wellness" space Healthcare insurance companies are trying to expand into, the battle for the "patient" is likely to heat up. The telecom companies may have a technology advantage but are likely to be limited by their lack of a "patient base". Opportunities may exist for Healthcare players to work out collaborative agreements with telecom players to leverage each others strengths.

Doctor, no reason though to lose heart yet, nearly half of Smartphone or mHealth applications are designed for Healthcare Providers aiming at improving their effectiveness and efficiency in areas like continued medical education programs, healthcare management and remote monitoring applications.And there's another side to the story too. A recent Harvard Health publication indicated that as phones and their apps become smarter and smarter, more clinicians are incorporating them into their practices. They say, in a few years, filling a prescription may be just as likely to involve a session in the apps store as a trip to the pharmacy.



Pssst…let me check my Smartphone mHealth app to see how my Blood Pressure and Heart rate tracked as I penned this piece.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Cornflakes? We've got an app for that too!!

This week major food brand Kellogg’s entered the world of smartphone apps with its first offering — myPlan, the Special K Challenge application for iPhone and Android platforms. The app enables users to create a two-week diet plan, update daily and weekly menus, track progress, find recipes, create shopping lists and receive motivational tips.

More details at : Interview: Kellogg on new myPlan diet app

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Frugal Innovation/Jugaad Example # 2

What if you cannot afford a motorbike?


You dress up your cycle as one!!

Jugaad at work (Frugal Innovation/Jugaad Example # 1).

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2011 and Beyond

Gartner Reveals Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2011 and Beyond

  1. By 2015, a G20 nation's critical infrastructure will be disrupted and damaged by online sabotage.
  2. By 2015, new revenue generated each year by IT will determine the annual compensation of most new Global 2000 CIOs.
  3. By 2015, information-smart businesses will increase recognized IT spending per head by 60 percent.
  4. By 2015, tools and automation will eliminate 25 percent of labor hours associated with IT services.
  5. By 2015, 20 percent of non-IT Global 500 companies will be cloud service providers.
  6. By 2014, 90 percent of organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices.
  7. By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.
  8. By 2015, 10 percent of your online "friends" will be nonhuman.

These were selected from more than 100 of the strongest Gartner predictions across all research areas  submitted for consideration this year. This year's selection process included evaluating several criteria that define a top prediction. The issues examined included relevance, impact and audience appeal.

Additional details are in the Gartner report "Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2011 and Beyond: IT's Growing Transparency"  (you will need to register at the Gartner site)

Do you agree with these? Do you have some predictions of your own which you think need to be added to the list? Let's do some crystal ball gazing of our own........

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Cytotron: Exciting New Development

One of the most popular posts on my blog has been Cytotron : A cure for Arthritis ?? . Many have wondered when would this pathbreaking technology become mainstream and be available in the US.

Now there's some exciting news on that front:  "The CYTOTRON  is a Rotational Field Quantum Magnetic Resonance device to treat cancer and improve drug targeting and delivery... Shréis Scalene Sciences LLC, an Organization de Scalene member company, today announced that it has been awarded a cash grant of about a quarter million USD, under the U.S. Government’s Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (“QTDP”) program, for 2010 "

The grant has been awarded to Shréis Scalene Sciences LLC (USA) to use "the CYTOTRON, as a stand-alone device utilizing Rotational Field Quantum Magnetic Resonance (RFQMR) to treat cancer and improve drug targeting and delivery through nano-permeabilization”.

The device uses Rotational Field Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (RFQMR) to deliver highly complex quantum (packet switched) beams in radiofrequency (RF) bands and harmonics ranging up to 300MHz in the presence of high instantaneous magnetic fields between 1mT to 6T, with specialized near field parabolic antennae.

Despite the wide array of prevailing therapies covering the entire range of the EM spectrum - from minimally invasive (thermal) RF ablation to complex ionizing radiation/prohibitive proton beam therapies - there is no stand alone, whole body, multi-organ suitable therapeutic device on the market today.

The CYTOTRON uniquely combines RF with instantaneous NMR, to safely yet effectively perform in vivo multi organ tissue engineering, with minimal/no collateral damage. A clinical trial was also registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01220830) using the CYTOTRON to treat Multiple Sclerosis. The trial is ongoing at the S-CARD campus in Bangalore.

An international patent application filed by the inventor Dr. Rajah Vijay Kumar, for the use of a Cytotron application called Focused Resonance Nano-permeabilization (FORN) has been recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Evidence exists that FORN can be combined with chemotherapy, using it as a "drug focusing and delivery tool" to non-invasively target intractable, impervious lesions, helping to reduce systemic toxicities and improve therapeutic windows.

Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia (PA) has issued a letter of intent to conduct a clinical trial using the Cytotron in brain cancer. Early interest was received from the Center for Prostate Disease Research-WRAMC for the use of the Cytotron to treat prostate cancer. SSS executives are confident that the award of the prestigious QTDP grant will open up more doors to make the device and the treatment available in multiple medical institutions nationwide.

Read more details at : Shréis Scalene awarded Federal QTDP grant to advance use of the CYTOTRON

Future of the Web: A web visionary speaks

Came across this interesting and informative presentation ("Ten Questions Internet Execs should ask and answer")  by Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley M.D.; delivered at the Web 2.0 Summit at San Francisco on Nov 16, 2010.


Meeker is head of the firm's global technology research unit (Latest Update 11/30: A Onetime 'Queen of the Net' Heads to Silicon Valley : Meeker moves to Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner) . She has been called "Queen of the Net" by Barron's and was named "one of the ten smartest people in tech" by "Fortune" magazine in 2010. Her prognostications about the state and future of the Internet are much awaited and respected. Meeker helps set the tech agenda in her annual state of the Internet address at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

The 10 questions Meeker asks and answers are:
  1. Globality
    Do you know which players in which countries do what you do better (or at least differently) than you do? Do you study / implement it?
  2. Mobile
    Ramping faster than any ‘new new thing’ – is your business leading or lagging?
  3. Social Ecosystems
    Would you rather be Apple, Google or…Facebook?
    Will their future directions help / hurt your business?
  4. Advertising
    Ripe for innovation – will your business benefit?
  5. Commerce
    ’Wal-Mart in your pocket’…location-based services…group buying power…flash sales… deep discounts…transparent pricing…real-time alerts / ratings…virtual goods...immediate gratification… Products must be fast + easy + fun.
    Have you ever seen ‘constant improvement’ in products like we are seeing now? Is your business keeping pace?
    Do humans want everything to be like a game?
  6. Media
    What does the extraordinary ramp in on-demand video usage mean for your business?
  7. Internet Company Leadership Evolution
    Shocking changes over just 6 years… are you prepared for next half decade of change?
  8. Steve Jobs
    What’s his ‘secret sauce?’ Does your company have it?
  9. Ferocious Pace of Change - What’s Next in Tech?
    When do consumers / enterprises & incumbents / attackers need you?
  10. Closing Thoughts –
    Large companies do not typically support rapid growth rates of the magnitude that follow… will these trends continue? 
Food for thought!...not exactly what you needed as you visualize the food laden platters for Thanksgiving.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 19, 2010

The Business Intelligence Chronicles Part 19: SAS vs. Cognos or is it SAS & Cognos??

Comparison of user feedback on the two tools for various parameters (compiled from various sources)
Companies with big data crunching groups often end up with a conundrum related to tool selection esp. when making a choice between SAS and Cognos 8. My thoughts on the issue: 
  • Both can coexist. Rather than it becoming a "SAS vs. Cognos" scenario it can be "SAS and Cognos".
(A scenario which exists at some players: Generally, Cognos used as a data presentation layer that includes descriptive statistics and OLAP. SAS having a substantially more powerful ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capability, used for data prep processes. Finally, SAS handles the inferential statistics and data mining, including predictive and optimization modeling.

To summarize, SAS used to integrate and perform ETL  on data, Cognos to present the data, then SAS to analytically crunch the data.

The analytical results may then be reported back through Cognos. This whole process can be made to feel seamless. 

Potentially some of the same synergy can be realized by a Cognos-SPSS combination.) 
  • Release of Cognos 10 and integration of Cognos-SPSS makes the comparison more difficult as SPSS adds the predictive/statistical analyses capabilities which Cognos was weaker in. On other hand the SAS - Enterprise Guide provides a very analytical user friendly front-end
How have you dealt with your Predictive Analytics vs. Descriptive Analytics dilemma ? Peaceful co-existence or daggers drawn ? 

Friday, November 12, 2010

Ancient Indian Mathematics ; and the World Wide Web running out of IP addresses

Modern technologists have shown a remarkable lack of vision when envisaging the potential scope and spread of their innovations especially when dealing with numbers. Y2K, D10K etc, were manifestations of this malaise and now we come across the latest - the Internet may be in a danger of shut down as it runs out of IP addresses ("It sounds far-fetched, but a crisis with the potential to close off the Internet is imminent.").


How will my refrigerator talk to my toaster then? A big reason for running out of IP addresses is that almost every household device is Internet compatible now and has a unique IP address associated with it.


Juxtapose this against the logic of mathematicians of ancient India who had names for numbers as large as 10 to the power 17, yes 17


10 power 0      Eka
10 power 1      Dashah 
10 power 2      Shata
10 power 3      Sahasra
10 power 4      Ayuta
10 power 5      Laksha
10 power 6      Prayuta
10 power 7      Koti
10 power 8      Arbuda
10 power 9      Abja
10 power 10    Kharva
10 power 11    Nikharva
10 power 12    Mahapadma
10 power 13    Shankha
10 power 14    Jaladhi
10 power 15    Antya
10 power 16    Madhya
10 power 17    ParArdha.


Why? as early as 1st Century B.C.E. (perhaps even earlier) would they be wrapping their arms around such huge numbers baffles the imagination. 


The reasons were often mundane but can be well appreciated - like a prayer from Krishna Yajur Veda (4th Khanda, 4th Prashna)- a prayer and a wish for the wealth of cows to abound in large numbers, like millions and millions.  The counting of cows here goes by  hundreds, thousands, and thousands and millions of hundreds.


Now one can get an idea about the roots of a sense of exactitude even when things are nebulous - no , it's not God give me lots of cows but God give me a ParArdha cows!! ("..........parArdhashcemAme agna ishTakA dhenavassantu." - sanskrit)


So ye Gods of the Internet (aka "American Registry for Internet Numbers") move soon from the antiquated IP address of the type 74.125.227.19 (system offering roughly 4.3 billion possible IP addresses) to the the ones which look like fe80:43e3:9095:02e5:0216:cbff:feb2:7474 (offering 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses......that should make the "cow counters" happy). In techspeak move from IPv4 to IPv6.


Now let me go back to counting sheep....or is it cows..sheep...cows...sheep.....zzzzz

Useful Resource: IPv4 / IPv6: The Bottom Line

The Business Intelligence Chronicles Part 18 : Lost (or Found?) in a Cloud



The Business Intelligence Chronicles in a Word Cloud

The Business Intelligence Chronicles in a Phrase Net

As I played with the new data visualization capabilities from IBM Research Labs (Many Eyes), I thought it would be nice to see how previous parts of The Business Intelligence Chronicles would appear in a Word Cloud and Phrase Net. The results are above.

Many Eyes are Data visualization tools from IBM, currently described as an "experiment" from IBM Research and IBM Cognos software group. Site allows users to upload data and then produce graphic representations for others to view and comment upon.

Word Cloud Generator was first published by Jonathan Feinberg on wordle.net. It was designed to give pleasure, and not to provide reliable analytic insight. That said, many people have found unexpected uses for it, from presenting the "gist" of a text to displaying personal identity. Word Cloud Generator draws each word at a size proportional to its frequency.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Frugal Innovation/Jugaad Example # 1

Jugaad or Frugal Innovation, a way of life in India is the latest corporate buzzword (HBR, WSJ, Businesweek, The Economic Times) in the US.

Doing more for less is the new mantra for success in a stagnant recessionary economy and nowhere is the spirit of doing more for less better epitomized than by "jugaad", called by some as "art of creative improvisation", using things in a way they were not originally intended to achieve an objective.

Here's how Wikipedia defines it : ""Jugaad" is also a colloquial Hindi word that can mean an innovative fix, sometimes pejoratively used for solutions that bend rules, or a resource that can be used as such or a person who can solve a vexatious issue. It is used as much for enterprising street mechanics as for political fixers. In essence, it is a tribute to native genius, and lateral thinking."

I would like to share on my blog some of the examples of "jugaad" I come across. Please share your experiences too.

How's this for keeping your footwear safe oustide a temple or on the beach:


 
Updating this post to add a link to another interesting article on Jugaad from the WSJ : Jugaad on the Road to Success

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

How can your Boss kill you?

"Bosses matter,” says Stanford management professor Bob Sutton in “Why good bosses tune in to their people.” Among other things, bad ones can kill you: a study found that their subordinates had up to 40 percent more heart attacks than people who had good bosses."

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Monday, August 16, 2010

Evolution of the Apple "iDevices"

Something funny I came across. Enjoy!!
And I don't mean "funny" in a disparaging sense....nobody blends "fun" and "innovation" as well as Steve Jobs.....


2016 iHome??

US-India relationship: "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century"

Happy Independence Day (Aug 15) to all my Indian friends. Thought I would share President Obama's message on this occasion.

Statement by the President Obama on India's Independence Day


On behalf of my administration and the American people, I wish to congratulate all who will celebrate the 63rd anniversary of India’s independence. Indians around the world can not only look back on their history with pride, but can also look ahead to a future filled with hope and further progress. Ever since August 15, 1947, India’s non-violent struggle for freedom, its rejection of terrorism and extremism, and its belief in democracy, tolerance, and the rule of law have been an inspiration and beacon of hope for people around the world. India’s example has had a profound effect on many countries, including the United States. Leaders of our civil rights movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke about the debt they owed to Mahatma Gandhi. Ties between our two peoples have never been stronger. The over two million members of the Indian American community are living examples of the bonds that bind our nations together and their accomplishments have become well-known and admired in both countries. The strategic partnership between our countries will continue to grow, and I am looking forward to my November visit to India. Our goal is to make this one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century. Once again, congratulations and best wishes for a happy and safe Independence Day.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

We are proud to be new Americans

We are proud to be new Americans


Deepak Seth • Guest essayist • Rochester Democrat and Chronicle • July 4, 2010

On July 4, 2007, in a piece published in this newspaper, I had written "On Fourth of July I think of Fireworks, Festivities, Family, Food, Fun and much more but most importantly FREEDOM."

Three years down the line that still holds true, as it will for even the next 300-plus years, the cherished ideals of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness on which the Founding Fathers laid the keel of this great nation continuing to serve as shining beacons all over the globe. What has changed for me and my family though since I wrote that piece is that this year we join the festivities as "new" Americans.

On May 17, 2010, we joined 70-plus individuals from 35-plus countries as newly minted United States citizens in taking the oath of naturalization in a ceremony at RIT. The ceremony was solemn and joyous and the presiding judge reminded us of some of the illustrious footsteps we were now stepping into: Scientist Albert Einstein, Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and Henry Kissinger, songwriter Irving Berlin ("God Bless America"), Astronaut Kalpana Chawla etc. The list is long and awe-inspiring, and a reminder that immigrants have been the lifeblood of this great nation.

My thoughts flashed back to the Founding Fathers, who with their sagacity and foresight created a strong foundation in forming the U.S. Constitution, which has withstood the tests of time; and the subsequent leadership at all levels of government which has more often than not consistently placed the nation's interest ahead of their own personal interests to the extent we now take that for granted. Sadly, that is not the situation in many other countries around the globe.

I think of our men and women in uniform who are spending this day in distant lands far away from home. The Red and Blue of the Star-Spangled Banner I am sure shines as bright under the desert sun of Iraq and Afghanistan as it does swaying in the breeze off Lake Ontario, a constant reminder that freedoms earned have to be defended often at the cost of one's own blood.

I salute these heroes and our hometown heroes, but more importantly I salute the PEOPLE of our great nation. The people are what have made the nation great; the voice of the people reflected in our democratic institutions have enabled us to right the wrongs of history and move ahead even as other nations continue to stay mired in the quicksand of the past.

Deepak Seth is a former community member of the Editorial Board.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Bills organization spans generations

Bills organization spans generations
Published in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Jan 28,2010


Owner: 90-plus years old
GM: 70-plus years old
Coach: 50-plus years old
Players: 20 to 30 years old

If ever there was a team spanning generations it is the Buffalo Bills. "Back in my times" takes a whole new meaning with so many generations present. Let's hope this intergenerational dynamic generates some action on the field rather than the usual intergenerational issues of trying to figure out what the other generation means — I cannot make sense out of my kids' texting.

—DEEPAK SETH
BRIGHTON

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