Thursday, November 14, 2024

Is Australia the brand new epicenter for healthtech startups?


Sydney Opera House at night

On my current journey to Australia, I met with a handful of startups which might be fixing exhausting issues in healthcare, like mapping the mind, predicting seizures, and bettering rehabilitation for aged sufferers. And in all of those instances, cloud applied sciences are serving to to speed up analysis and innovation.


After half a dozen journeys unfold throughout 20 years, huge is the primary phrase that involves thoughts after I consider Australia. From the Nice Barrier Reef to the Blue Mountains, all the way in which to Kakadu Nationwide Park, it’s an immensely biodiverse place. Dwelling to greater than 1 million plant and animal species, many distinctive. Nevertheless, it’s a rustic that’s outlined as a lot by distance and the areas between, as it’s by pure magnificence. At practically the scale of the continental United States, Australia has lower than 1/tenth the inhabitants — however the inhabitants it does have is likely one of the most numerous on this planet, together with a wealthy mix of indigenous and immigrant cultures. It’s a rustic of great contrasts. And for that motive, it ought to come as no shock that the companies and concepts born in Australia are as numerous because the those that inhabit it.

For a number of weeks in January and February, I had an opportunity to go to the east coast of Australia, which coincided with our first AWS Area launch of the New 12 months. After a fast go to to Rod Laver Area, the place I witnessed an unimaginable exhibiting from Novak Djokovic in opposition to Stefanos Tsitsipas, I spent most of my time assembly with AWS clients and Amazonians which might be inventing Australia into the long run. From centuries-old banks and enormous telco enterprises, to younger startups doing all the pieces from good farming to piloting subterranean robots that map water programs beneath town streets of Melbourne, the cloud helps corporations of all sizes innovate rapidly and at scale.

All of it begins with the mind

Australia is dwelling to a flourishing startup scene. It’s flush with corporations centered on bettering healthcare outcomes, not just for individuals in Australia, however in every single place on this planet. And all of it begins with the mind.

Earlier this yr, once we launched the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Area, I wrote about Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t). An organization that has constructed mind mapping software program with the potential to revolutionize not solely neurosurgery, however the way in which that we diagnose and deal with each neurological and psychological well being circumstances. Once I bought to Sydney, they have been variety sufficient to take a seat and chat about their expertise stack, and the way cloud providers, particularly machine studying, permit them to provide customized mind maps from current MRIs that not solely present how a affected person’s mind is formed, however how each connection is clustered. And whereas I declined a private mind scan (I’m not fairly able to know all the pieces that’s occurring inside my head), I left our dialog feeling hopeful. I bear in mind the times when MRIs have been filed in cupboards, and analyzing lots of of 1000’s of knowledge factors was a pipe dream. This expertise really has the potential to enhance our collective understanding of the mind, speed up analysis, and most significantly, enhance the lives of sufferers. I first realized of Omniscient from Billion Greenback Serviette, and I’m together with a hyperlink to the episode as a result of it’s completely price watching.

It’s thrilling to see how new applied sciences are getting used to reinforce the experience of docs, researchers, and medical professionals. We are able to all agree that extra precision in neurosurgery is an effective factor. Nevertheless, an space that’s typically missed, however equally necessary, is growing the instruments that present sufferers with extra management of their therapies.

Seer Medical is a startup centered on bettering the lives of individuals residing with epilepsy. They’ve created a non-invasive wearable machine that can be utilized at dwelling to repeatedly gather EEG and ECG information from a affected person. The information is saved within the cloud (lots of of TBs), then analyzed to detect coronary heart and brainwave abnormalities, that are used to foretell seizures earlier than they happen. Entry to the sort of data was traditionally restricted to multi-day research that relied on costly gear and required sufferers to remain at a clinic in a single day for remark. When the research concluded, so did information assortment. What Seer has developed is a recreation changer for sufferers, in addition to docs and researchers. It offers sufferers autonomy. In the event that they know that some days are increased danger than others they will plan for it and reduce dangers. For docs and researchers it means extra and higher information to review, which can at some point assist them stop epileptic seizures altogether.

In each instances, cloud applied sciences paired with human intelligence are shifting us nearer to a future the place customized healthcare is the usual, not the exception.

Organic intelligence

Not everybody finding out the mind is concentrated on healthcare. Melbourne’s Cortical Labs are growing what they name “DishBrain Intelligence”. On the intersection of sentimental tissue and silicon, they’re utilizing stem cells to create the equal of a neural community that lives on a lab slide (the “DishBrain”).

Werner observing DishBrain computer on a lab slide
I’ve to confess, it has been some time since I’ve donned a lab coat. Placing one on once more at Cortical Labs actually took me again.

Thus far, they’ve taught stem cells to play Pong. Just like the neural networks utilized in machine studying, these biologic computer systems depend on reinforcement studying. When an motion is carried out, the community is both rewarded or penalized based mostly on the consequence.

At a high-level, right here’s the way it works. The slide makes use of electrical inputs to see the paddle and ball, and electrical outputs to maneuver the paddle. When the ball makes contact with the paddle, the community is rewarded with a small quantity of centered vitality. When the paddle misses the ball, the community is given a small quantity of random noise. Over time, the stem cells study to optimize the community to hit the ball. The irony is just not misplaced on me that we now have spent many years designing programs that mimic the human mind, and now we’re seeing neural stem cells utilized in natural computer systems. Joking apart, the analysis being executed by Cortical Labs is intriguing, and exhibits that there’s nonetheless loads that we now have to study. Within the close to future, they are going to be wanting into the impacts of drugs and alcohol on their organic computer systems — it is going to be attention-grabbing to see what they uncover.

Wholesome physique, wholesome thoughts… and a little bit of aggressive benefit

Transferring from the lab to the realm of on a regular basis actions, there are Australian startups doing attention-grabbing work on the crossroads of well being and sport. Firms like VueMotion, who’re utilizing laptop imaginative and prescient to develop machine studying fashions that may monitor kinetic and kinematic information for athletes — all the pieces from joint angles and gait evaluation, to the affect power of a foot strike or a tough reduce on the soccer pitch.

Just like how Omniscient are constructing customized mind maps, VueMotion are creating customized physique fashions. They confirmed me a demo of a runner whose stride lengths diversified from left to proper foot with an overlay of kinematic information. With the sort of data, trainers and coaches can rapidly acquire an understanding of how somebody strikes in a pure atmosphere, make changes, then monitor how their actions change over time — each progressions and regressions — all utilizing video captured from a smartphone.

What VueMotion has constructed has actual potential to stop accidents and enhance efficiency for athletes in any respect ranges. It’s the kind of innovation I alluded to in this yr’s predictions. However the implications are a lot greater than sport. VueMotion believes that their expertise can even enhance elder care and rehabilitation. Giving docs and bodily therapists the instruments and information they want to attract insights, create affected person particular plans, and monitor progress over time. It’s yet one more instance of expertise augmenting experience in healthcare.

Final, however actually not least, are Bolt6. I met with them on the Australian Open, the place they have been working a proof of idea for participant, racket, and ball monitoring — processed and analyzed within the cloud (no server racks required). I first seen how prevalent expertise had turn out to be in tennis watching the US Open final summer season. The entire line judges have been gone. Only a chair umpire and the ball crew. A product of the pandemic, however possible an indication of issues to come back. This realization left me with extra questions than solutions. How correct have been the road calls? Would this variation the notion of equity for gamers and followers? Wouldn’t it pace up matches, and if sure, how would it not affect participant fatigue and incidence of harm?

The expertise Bolt6 has developed to make line calls could be very correct. With an error tolerance of three millimeters, it gives extra precision than the common line choose. And it’s constant — a digital camera isn’t going to alter a name when a participant yells or smashes a racket.

With X, Y, Z monitoring, Bolt6 can do way more than make a line name or measure gait, they will do issues like decide how shut a participant is to a ball and the way they’re shaping as much as make successful, even assess fatigue in real-time. And their innovation doesn’t cease with tennis. Bolt6 can also be offering the expertise that enables NASCAR to trace each automotive on a monitor with 300 millisecond supply, no matter the place on this planet a race is going down. What they’ve constructed opens up a close to infinite variety of analytics that may enhance coaching and technique for all sports activities, and improve broadcasts for followers.

As I mentioned on the finish of final yr, the sports activities world is at the moment on the verge of the largest revolution it has ever seen, and cloud applied sciences are on the middle of this variation.

It takes a village

I’m frequently requested questions on how issues work at Amazon. How we do issues. What drives innovation. The whole lot from writing docs to successfully managing massive engineering groups constructing distributed programs. I can share processes, I can talk about tradition, however what makes Amazon work is the Amazonians. With out them, what you’ve examine on this submit wouldn’t be attainable.

A group picture with a few Amazonians from Down Under
Thanks to all the groups from Melbourne to Sydney that made this a really particular journey.

Till subsequent time

As huge and numerous as Australia may be, there was a typical theme shared by the businesses, entrepreneurs, and engineers I met with: a ardour to resolve exhausting human issues. As I replicate on this journey, it’s really inspiring to see how cloud applied sciences are being harnessed to enhance healthcare outcomes. Now, as all the time, go construct!



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