Chain Completed by Mems, Revolution Coming

[Arthur Hanson]

Mems are going to provide the last link in the chain of big data/processing power/communications/mems.This last link is the critical link to the physical world that is going to grow and strengthen the entire chain in a way that is going to vastly increase the power of the chain to actually do things, but vastly increase our ability to learn in such a way as we have never seen before.The mems revolution is still in its very, very early stages.

Medical will be the first area that we will experience staggering gains in benefits and the rate of increase of our knowledge of health. Wearable devices will provide a data base of size, scope and time that will make previous data bases miniscule in time, size and function in comparison . This doesn’t even take into account the speed at which the data will be accumulated. If they take just one percent of the medical market in just the US, it will be 34 billion dollars. Labs on a chip will change the rest of medical, by reducing the cost of a lab by a factor of over a hundred. A lab that took up a whole room will be on a chip and flexible just like a regular medical lab for it will be programmed to use various sections just like a full scale physical lab. This same lab on a chip architecture will apply will apply to all types of labs, from chemical, metals, testing, biology, materials and possible even nuclear for the amounts of material are so small as to allow even dangerous samples to be handled safely. If this comes to be it could easily be a hundred billion dollar market in three years, just in medical, just in the US. Across all industries and world wide the potential is staggering.

This will drive the entire semi industry to grow and change at the most rapid rate in its history in ways that will change the very fabric of how we live. The greatest impediment to this will be the established interests which should never be underestimated. Companies that master training and teaching to maximize their resources will have the most opportunities of all.

Comments, opinions and observations wanted and welcome.

 

[matthewjcrowley]

I agree with all the points above. The last 40-50 years the information infrastructure solved major problems in how to process, store and transmit data. Now that the data infrastructure exists, we are ready for massive data acquisition which will primarily be electromechanical/electrochemical sensors. The sensors and applications will be incredibly diverse and the wave of innovation will need to be massive.

 

[ippisl]

>> Labs on a chip will change the rest of medical, by reducing the cost of a lab by a factor of over a hundred.

>> If this comes to be it could easily be a hundred billion dollar market in three years, just in medical, just in the US.

So costs will reduce by 100x(if your read latest research , the technology could offer ~50000x decrease), won't we need just 100x growth in blood testing just be at the same place ? without speaking on growth ?

Where will this growth in blood testing will come from ?

 

[Arthur Hanson]

ippisi, the US alone spends about 3.8 trillion on medical, testing of all types is a significant amount. There are blood tests of many, many types. There are types of blood tests that could replace many procedures. There are also fecal, urine, sweat, hair, skin and numerous other types of tests. Also mems lab tests could ID cancers and many other diseases. Then there is 24/7/365 monitoring that could prevent more serious medical consequences. Using big data and a tech to hook a person up to mems and mems cameras to scan a body could also reduce the need for doctors by a significant amount, saving billions, while being more accurate. Vinod Kohsla feels many doctors could also be eliminated. 100 billion in cost savings should be easily achievable. That's under three percent, an easily achievable goal. Further comment welcome.

 

[ippisl]

I don't doubt it could advance healthcare by miles , and could save much money, probably much more than 100 billion. I'm just not sure that We'll need to multiply our blood testing by much more than 100x.

And if not , some of this money saved could go elsewhere. Maybe not to the lab-on-chip layer(because, on the surface there are many competing lab on chip techs ,and they are all reducing costs greatly, so where is the moat ?). Maybe to medical startups(and not semi/lab-on-chip startups) developing the layer above it , fda approved diagnostics, but i don't really understand the industry and how competition works there, so it's hard to say how much money from all the savings can they capture, but i would be happy to know more.

 

[Arthur Hanson]

ippisil, I have been very heavily invested in medical for years and the market is huge world wide. Out of the seven trillion and growing spent world wide, 140 billion would be huge for the semi industry, but a drop in the bucket for medical costs. It isn't only testing, but replacing the retinas in eyes and giving the deaf hearing (both have been done). This also makes the people productive instead of costly liabilities. This is just the tip of the iceberg in making people that are liabilities productive. The uses and opportunities for semis and mems to cut cost dramatically are there and part of the ethos of the tech industry of constantly increasing functionality while reducing costs. This is the next huge frontier of medical. I also feel sonograms are going to greatly increase in functionality to the point of replacing most x-rays and MRIs at a small fraction of the costs using the same technology as used in oil fields for far better exploration results at a fraction of the cost. This technology uses the advanced Nvidia GPUs. I could go on for pages on this, but for right now this is all time permits..