Linkedin Article- Tech Time

Article 1 – The most-important Indian origin tech executives in the world – Top Picks

 (Adapted from Gadgets Now, Published on January 26, 2021) 

There are several tech executives of Indian origin that hold key positions at some of the biggest tech companies in the world

Read more at - https://www.gadgetsnow.com/slideshows/17-most-important-indian-origin-tech-executives-in-the-world/photolist/80456178.cms?picid=80456209

Article 2 – Know how marketing teams can look to replace ‘best practice’ with experimentation

(Adapted from Marketing Tech News, Published on January 11, 2021) 

The year 2020 brought a change, and the pace of change continues to accelerate, meaning marketers can no longer rely on best practice, previous results or assumptions!!!

In today’s time, experimentation and proposition development are more important than ever before. 

The importance of customer insight and testing

• Testing and experimentation are key to finding out what will work and what won’t, whether that’s a digital product, marketing campaign or customer service.
• Marketers need to be comfortable working with some unknowns, bold enough to follow what works and brave enough to ditch what doesn’t.
• In the past, best practice may have dictated that user testing takes place in the final stages of development to check the usability of a product or service.
• So often, businesses will design an output to completion, or near-final prototype, before seeking customer input. The primary value of usability testing at this stage is in understanding the customer’s capability of navigating from point A to point B.
• The earlier that customer insight can be brought into the process, the more their feedback can be used to experiment and inform the end product.

Testing at the right time, in the right way

The most common purposes for user testing are:

• Validation – prove or disprove a belief or concept
• Usability – see if people can get from point A to point B
• Memorability – explore how a complete experience is recalled

When testing an idea or a message, it’s important not to lead answers or ask people to predict their future behaviour, as this won’t be accurate. Instead, provide just enough necessary context and ask people to either retell what they’ve done in the past, or explain what their peers will do or think.

Sometimes budgets and time will dictate that you cannot speak to your customers, but this doesn’t mean user testing is off the cards. See if you can identify a group of people within the business who fit the customer demographic and who haven’t been involved in the development of the project. This allows for validation and user testing to take place, without insider knowledge skewing your results.

Three experimentation cues from agile working principles

At the core, agile principles encourage high speed and adaptable response to change. So it’s only natural that marketers take cues from these to move away from best practice reliance where it no longer serves, towards greater experimentation and flexibility.

1. Collaborative decision making: It’s important to remember that your audience doesn’t experience your industry, your service, or Covid-19 in the same way. The best way to meet this is with a marketing function that includes diversity of thought, knowledge and background. So bring a diverse team to the table. Not for passive involvement, but for committed, collaborative decision making. This will naturally lead to more people in the room asking ‘why’ and turning to best practice fewer times, because not everyone is already conditioned to the same processes. Team diversity will lead to diversity in opinions and ideas.
2. Listen to your customers: For all stages of feedback and testing, remember that customers are experts in their problems, not the solutions to them. That’s where your expertise comes in. Allow their input to guide your exploration of solutions, which you can then test.
3. Iteration, iteration, iteration: Big bang launches are often costly and require a lot of planning and commitment ahead of time. It’s beneficial to move away from the idea that each department should fulfil their input, before handing over to the next, all the way up until launch. If linear steps through different disciplines to deliver work sounds all too familiar, then it’s time to re-imagine what iterative collaboration, informed by customer insight, can look like. Think incremental iterations. It’s far easier to experiment or pivot an idea following weeks of resources spent and lessons learned, instead of months – not to mention far wiser financially.

2021 and beyond

Moving forwards, it’s more important than ever to challenge presumptions, processes and how both came to be. In a time of constant adaptation, taking cues from agile working principles and experimentation informed by customer insight can take marketers much further than ‘best practice’.

Read more at - https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2021/jan/11/how-marketing-teams-can-look-to-replace-best-practice-with-experimentation/

Article 3 – Innovations that can improve global health – Top 10 picks

(Adapted from McKinsey Global Institute, Published on July 15, 2020)

By 2040, new technologies could reduce the total burden of disease by 6-10%

Today’s interventions are the innovations of the past. Without them, healthy lifespans would not be as long as they are. Innovation continues to be critical to tackle diseases without known cures and to help increase uptake and adherence to interventions that work.

1.      Omics and molecular technologies

• These technologies are key components of the Bio Revolution and are therapeutics or diagnostics that harness the various types of molecules within cells (such as DNA, RNA, and proteins).
• Some omics and molecular technologies (for instance, genome editing) engineer these intracellular components or analyze them (such as proteomics and transcriptomics).

Example: CRISPR and curbing malaria

• The current treatment includes antimalarial prophylactics and nonpharmaceutical measures (such as indoor residual spraying and insecticide-treated bed netting) and antimalarial medications.
• Genetically modifying malaria-carrying mosquitos by using gene-editing technologies, such as CRISPR, may significantly reduce disease levels by propagating the modified genes across the mosquito population.

2.      Next-generation pharmaceuticals

• Newer iterations of traditional chemical compounds (small molecules) and classes of molecules could be used as medicinal drugs, possibly with multiple and concurrent target structures.

Example: Senolytics and the regulation of cellular aging

• Cellular aging (senescence) is considered an unavoidable physiological process that is not a viable field for drug development.
• But senolytics (a class of small molecules) may decrease or eliminate aging cells that can cause cellular inflammation, dysfunction, and tissue damage. This has implications for delaying age-related diseases.

3.      Cellular therapy and regenerative medicine

• Cellular therapy is a biological product, derived from living cells, used for therapeutic purposes to replace or repair damaged cells or tissues.
• Regenerative medicine has the power to restore diseased or injured tissues and organs, potentially decreasing reliance on transplantation.

Example: CAR T-cell therapy and the treatment of solid tumors

• Today, treatment is based primarily on unspecific radiotherapy and chemotherapeutic agents, plus surgical interventions. In many cases, these approaches are ineffective. 
• CAR T-cell therapy reprograms a patient’s T-cells (immune-system cells) to target tumor cells.
• When infused into the patient, the T-cells bind to an antigen on tumor cells, attacking and destroying them.

4.      Innovative vaccines

• Vaccines stimulate the immune system to respond to and destroy a bacterium or virus.
• Historically, they have eradicated or controlled the spread of infectious diseases around the world. In the future, vaccines may target non-communicable diseases, such as cancer.

Example: The AT04A vaccine and the lowering of cholesterol

• At present, patients take statins (lipid-lowering medicines) to control or lower high cholesterol levels in the blood.
• AT04A is a vaccine made up of molecules that bind to blood cholesterol and degrade it. The vaccine would be required only once a year, potentially improving outcomes.

5.      Advanced surgical procedures

• These include treating injuries or disorders of the body with minimally invasive incisions or small instruments (including robotic surgery), as well as any technique that improves surgery-related processes outside the operating room.

Example: Suspended animation for severe-trauma patients

• After patients suffer acute trauma (such as an accident) it may take time to get them to hospitals for surgery. That significantly decreases their chances of survival.
• Suspended animation for severe-trauma patients would involve, for example, injecting a cold saline solution into them on first contact to cool the body to 10–15oC and stop its normal functions. This would give the surgeon time to operate before resuscitating the patient.

6.      Connected and cognitive devices

• Portable, wearable, ingestible, or implantable devices can monitor health and fitness information, engage patients and their communities of caregivers, and deliver self-regulated therapies autonomously.

Example: E-tattoos for heart diagnostics

• Today’s technology relies on a Holter monitor (a battery-operated device) to monitor the heart continuously.
• The monitor’s batteries last for no more than 48 hours, and the procedure can cause immense discomfort for patients.
• Ultrathin e-tattoos can monitor hearts for longer periods and make patients more comfortable while providing a wider range of data to enhance clinical decision making.

7.      Electroceuticals

• Small therapeutic agents can target the neural circuits of organs. Such therapies map neural circuitry with neural impulses (administered by an implantable device) delivered to these specific targets.

Example: Implantable microchips to mitigate chronic pain

• Today, managing chronic pain involves nonindividualized treatment with multiple drugs (including opioids) and relatively ineffective late-stage surgery.
• But one technique now under development—stimulating the spinal cord—can improve the patient’s quality of life by increasing mobility, enhancing sleep, and reducing the need for pain medication.

8.      Robotics and prosthetics

• A wide variety of programmable, self-controlled devices consisting of electronic, electrical, or mechanical units and of artificial substitutes or replacements for body parts are now under development.

Example: Next-generation exoskeletons and mobility support

• Today’s mechanical mobility aids do not fully restore movement in the elderly, so they do not prevent a loss of independence and the risk of accidental injuries.
• Next-generation exoskeletons, powered by small motors that mimic human muscles, could allow older patients to recover their autonomy while reducing the likelihood of accidents and falls.

9.      Digital therapeutics

• These preventive and therapeutic evidence-based interventions, for a broad spectrum of physical, mental, and behavioral conditions, are controlled by software.

Example: An AI-powered app to change behavior

• Apart from brief consultations, doctors now have few tools to help patients with chronic conditions adopt healthy lifestyles.
• In the future, digital therapeutics, powered by AI, patient data, and behavioral science, can use gamification and other forms of engagement to help patients adopt and sustain healthy behaviors.

10.   Tech-enabled care delivery

• These ways to deliver care incorporate new and larger data sets, use new analytics capabilities to generate insights, and help providers apply them to patients to improve the outcome, experience, and efficiency of care.

Example: Multichannel care delivery

• Inefficient data management and poor communication among patients, payers, and providers hinder the continuity of care and therefore make treatment significantly less efficient.
• Innovative multichannel care delivery using online platforms may facilitate data sharing and make treatment more efficient.
• This is particularly relevant for chronic diseases, such as diabetes, because the glucose levels and other vital signs of patients are continuously shared with clinicians.

Read more at - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/ten-innovations-that-can-improve-global-health