Foley & Lardner
111 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02199 

Schedule:
Networking - 5:30 pm to 6:40 pm 
Program: 6:40 pm to 8:00 pm 
Networking: 8:00 pm to 8:45 pm

About the Speakers:

John Werner: John Werner is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Meta where he strives to exceed expectations of what Augmented Reality can be – and do – in the future.  Werner is helping Meta design a future where augmented reality becomes a healthy, vital extension of who we are and creates deeper understanding, freer expression, and optimal productivity. Werner brings his experience pioneering innovative technology and  network of relationships, to help Meta in the fast-growing field of augmented reality (AR). Werner is very excited about Meta's technology, the DNA of which is neuroscience - science of the brain. Werner plans to merge the best and brightest thinkers of the East Coast with Silicon Valley and the world (he has been to Asia 12 times in the last four years working on tech efforts) to help create an entirely new computing paradigm, a vector of real change for a new society.  

Prior to Meta, Werner was Head of Innovation and New Ventures at the Camera Culture Group were he supported developments on new imaging platforms, including hardware and software technologies (at MIT he co-taught the first Google Glass Application course), and was the Founding Managing Director of Emerging Worlds SIG at the MIT Media Lab. 

Werner is one of the leaders behind REDX (Rethinking Engineering Design eXecution) an MIT inspired platform of bottom-up innovation designed for addressing big challenges worldwide - that was recently recognize by the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention. For four years Werner implemented REDX efforts in cities, states, and regions. This effort convened people with diverse interests, skills and backgrounds—young engineers, business people and designers—to collaborate openly with government officials, business leaders and academics, as well as with researchers who together they looked for creative solutions to pressing local challenges that can be solved with new technology.  REDX addressed themes across many sectors, including food and agriculture, financial inclusion, energy and water, health and wellness, housing and transportation. Using digital technologies such as machine learning, Internet of Things, and mobile devices, the platform created digital solutions to leapfrog current technology with potential to impact billions of lives. 

He is the founder and head of Ideas in Action which produces TEDxBeaconStreet, an accomplished photographer and triathlete who has qualified for and competed in the Ironman World Championship four times. 

James Gardner: James A. Gardner, @jamesagardner, is a Boston-area sales and marketing professional with a passion for consumer technologies and all things health, web & social. He started his career with Procter & Gamble before earning his MBA at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Since then, James has served senior clients as a consultant with McKinsey & Company, led complex digital projects with Boston-area agencies, and built several high-performing marketing teams. He’s also been published and quoted in multiple professional publications, most recently CMSWire, CIO.com, eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, and MedTech Boston.

Tristan Dwyer: @tdwyerdesign Tristan is the VP of Technology at brand experience design firm White Rhino (whiterhino.com). He's spent his career marrying creativity, design and technology, to create engaging digital experiences for healthcare and B2B brands. Current and past clients include Mass General Hospital, Nuance Healthcare, Olympus Medical, SAP and EMC. Recently he’s led the creation of projects incorporating AR and VR in the healthcare space, helps organize the BostonVR Meetup group in his spare time, and is a member of the judging panel at CSSDesignAwards.com.

Dennis J Solomon: Dennis is the founder of iHoloDeck, which develops state-of-the-art, immersive, interactive, augmented virtual reality eyewear and peripherals. We are leap-frogging Google Glass, Apple and Facebook / Oculus for the PDA EyeWear of the near future.

Rafael Grossmann, the first surgeon who performed an operation with the help of Google Glass, told me that Pokémon Go represents the ultimate gamification of an “activity” app, and that he does not think the inventors of the game such as Nintendo expected nor planned this effect in people.

Why is the game so popular and what does it have to do with the future of medicine?

The response is augmented reality (AR) and the rising interest of people in its use. Pokémon Go is made with exactly this technology: the device (in this case your phone) transmits a live or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment which is augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. In the future, augmented reality could be a built-in feature in a glass, headset or digital contact lens.

Augmented reality differs from its most known “relative”, virtual reality (VR) since the latter creates a 3D world completely detaching the user from reality. There are two respects in which AR is unique: users do not lose touch with reality and it puts information into eyesight as fast as possible. These distinctive features enable AR to become a driving force in the future of medicine.

At the moment, there are certain hindrances to overcome but Grossmann thinks that AR and VR will be very common in healthcare within the next 3-5 years. According to Grossmann, the biggest obstacles are related to education, cultural change and acceptance, but the technical obstacles are absolutely temporal and not an issue at all, and cost-related barriers will also

Here are some examples of how augmented reality is advancing medicine:

1) Augmented reality can save lives through showing defibrillators nearby

What would you do if a person next to you collapsed suddenly? All kinds of thoughts would rush through your head, and no matter whether you would think of calling an ambulance, a doctor or your mom for help, you would definitely reach for your phone.

A mobile app named AED4EU was created by Lucien Engelen from the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands. Its users can add places where automated external defibrillators or AEDs are located and this database can be accessed through this new application. Moreover, with the Layar browser, you can project the exact location of the nearest AEDs on the screen of your phone and it would take a minute to find them and help those in need. So augmented reality brings crucial pieces of information to those in need or danger.

2) Google Glass might help new mothers struggling with breastfeeding

It is a matter of fact that Google Glass has the potential to revolutionize healthcare, but this technology helps new mothers with breastfeeding.

In 2014, the Melbourne office of an innovation company called Small World conducted a Google Glass trial with the Australian Breastfeeding Association that effectively allowed their telephone counsellors to see through the eyes of mothers while they breastfed at home. Through such a way struggling mothers could get expert help at any time of the day and they did not even have to put down the baby from their arms. By sharing the patient’s perspective, consultations get to a new level.

3) Patients can describe their symptoms better through augmented reality

Patients often struggle when they have to describe their symptoms to their doctors accurately. In other cases, people often find themselves overreacting a medical situation or on the contrary, belittle the problem. In ophthalmology, augmented reality might be the answer for patient education.

EyeDecide is one of its kind medical app, which uses the camera display for simulating the impact of specific conditions on a person’s vision. Using apps like EyeDecide, doctors can show simulation of the vision of a patient suffering from a specific condition. For instance, the app can demonstrate the impact of Cataract or AMD and thus helping patients understand their symptoms and their actual medical state. If patients can experience the long-term effects of their lifestyle on their health, it could motivate people to make positive changes.

4) Nurses can find veins easier with augmented reality

The start-up company AccuVein is using AR technology to make both nurses’ and patients’ lives easier. AccuVein’s marketing specialist, Vinny Luciano said 40% of IVs (intravenous injections) miss the vein on the first stick, with the numbers getting worse for children and the elderly. AccuVein uses augmented reality by using a handheld scanner that projects over skin and shows nurses and doctors where veins are in the patients’ bodies. Luciano estimates that it’s been used on more than 10 million patients, making finding a vein on the first stick 3.5x more likely. Such technologies could assist healthcare professionals and extend their skills.

5) Motivating runners through zombies

Imagine that you are walking through a dark and abandoned alley, and you suddenly hear the groaning and the slow movement of a strange creature. Even the laziest person would speed up after realizing that a “real zombie” is after him. This is the basic idea behind the Zombies, Run!application.

The game monopolizes on the fact that fear can motivate people and the fact that everything seems to be more fun when turned into a game. This app is perfect for those who consider running a boring activity. Those who use the app increases their speed and endurance, but also feel that time is just flying by.

6) Pharma companies can provide more innovative drug information

Have you ever been curious about how a drug works in your body? Even if you got interested in discovering how the distant world of medications work, you probably lost your enthusiasm after you read the boring and undecipherable drug description. Now, augmented reality is here to change it.

With the help of AR, patients can see how the drug works in 3D in front of their eyes instead of just reading long descriptions on the bottle. Lab workers could monitor their experiments with augmented reality equipment. In factories, workers could start working without hands on trainings as the device would tell them what to do, and how to do it.

7) Augmented reality can assist surgeons in the OR

Doctors and patients are aware of the fact that when it comes to surgery, precision is of prime importance. AR can help surgeons become more efficient at surgeries. Whether they are conducting a minimally invasive procedure or locating a tumor in liver, AR healthcare apps can help save lives and treat patients seamlessly.

Medsights Tech developed a software to test the feasibility of using augmented reality to create accurate 3-dimensional reconstructions of tumors. The complex image reconstructing technology basically empowers surgeons with x-ray views – without any radiation exposure, in real time.

The earlier mentioned Grossmann, who was part of the team performing the first live operation using medical VR, told me that HoloAnatomy, which is using HoloLens to display real data-anatomical models, is a wonderful and rather intuitive use of AR having obvious advantages over traditional methods.

8) Google’s digital contact lens can transform how we look at the world

The age of digital contact lenses and retinal implants are upon us and they have great potential in transforming healthcare. Retinal implants might give vision back to those who lost it or grant humans supervision augmenting what we can do. Digital contact lenses could transform both how we look at the world while also revolutionizing diabetes care. Google aims to produce digital, multi-sensor contact lens which will be able to measure blood sugar levels. On the other hand, diabetes care constitutes rather a side feature, while more importantly digital contact lenses will be able to augment reality – for example to turn the page of an e-book by blinking an eye.

Although current devices such as Microsoft Hololens are far from the “perfect” experience, but there is no reason to believe that we will not get there soon. Thus, the most effective way to get used to this future trend, if we start to educate ourselves and our children.

Parents often complain that their kids are just sitting in from of some screens not learning anything about their environment and themselves, but I do not agree. Minecraft also enhances creativity, develops the way children see the world around them – but in a different way as LEGO. I think that from here, it is only one leap before we reach LEGO with AR where the advantages of building something in the real world might be combined with virtual imagination. This way, our kids would be able to know what real is real, but would also be ready to exploit the opportunities AR can provide us with.