Last night, I attended Start-up Events Orange County’s event, Women in Tech Part 2, and was very impressed. I found a great variety of mobile app, gaming, web-enabled, and personal & social tech-ware. There is no doubt the OC is fast becoming a haven for tech startups, of course, with a little help from the big success of the Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming, and their acquisition by Facebook. And these smart girls are really cute too!
I was able to peruse and talk with most all of the exhibitors, some 15-20 up & coming tech startups, that I expect to be around next year. One of the exhibitors, LynxFit, was there with a Google Glass set up for fitness training. Another, Zuul Labs, showcased their 1st art gaming app, Tall Tails, and shared how their using coffee & their new gaming app to save rescued dogs. Another, MotorMood, makes a LED device to go in the rear window of your car to let other drivers know what you’re feeling.
I continue to stay abreast of area tech and frequent several of the tech Meetups. I am still hoping to develop my earlier DiaCeph mHealth test for hydrocephalus as a mobile data app. I’m also offering to consult for groups involved in mHealth, and others involved in assistive cognitive technology and cognitive accessibility. My entire 40 year career has been in tech, from my years in nuclear medicine technology (1975-1992), where I became a guru of sorts and founded my own company, to my design of the DiaCeph Test, and efforts with assistive technology, mobile apps, and now cognitive accessibility. My skills with tech in nuclear medicine were so well established, that my first job out of college I set up a nuclear medicine department from scratch, then taught staff physicians about it.
It was in 1997 (after my brain injury & living with shunt complications), that I designed & patent my DiaCeph test, originally because of hidden issues with my Delta anti-siphon shunt – which I petitioned FDA on in 1996. I was having problems, and nobody would revise me – because there was no diagnostic proof of a shunt problem. I designed DiaCeph in 1997 as a stand-alone PDA app – and I was in fact, one of the earliest people to design a mobile type of app. It just took tech 15 years to catch up with me. Many of the things I wanted to do previously in assistive apps, are now more possible today. And the business model for DiaCeph as a data app is almost completely different today. As a data app, it would still be ahead of most mHealth apps today. My biggest concerns are the costs of coding & development, and getting it done within the restrictions of new FDA guidance.
If I had my caruthers, I’d create “open-source” CNS brain shunts with new features and capabilities, and tell the FDA to go pound sand! Their Phase II and PMA regulations are much to blame for many of the current shunt problems.
Sometime soon I will publish new content on my DiaCeph Test, and content on other brain apps & such I’ve used and can endorse. I only have so much time, and currently have quite a few projects demanding my time. My neurosurgeon, Dr. Muhonen, has also asked if I might be able to create a mobile app or other means to read the setting of programmable shunts. It looks unlikely that it can be done via the phone itself. It would have to include an accessory plug-in or some stand-alone reading mechanism. I’m not sure if you heard, but it was discovered a few weeks ago that my Certas valve suffered a changed setting and may have gone on for 4-5 months undetected. That was fun!
I am still doing my drum circle facilitation work. But I am being much more selective now to better account for my time. I’ve got some new applications & methods in drumming, and will write about them when the time is right. I am pleased to know they are a lot of people doing drumming today because of my efforts.
Here’s a link from one tech startup from the event I expect to use.
Stephen
DolleCommunications Blog 