For those who don’t know boxing, there are three ways a fight ends. The first is a clear knockout, the second is by vote of ringside judges and the third is when the referee in the ring ends the fight. This last one is known as a technical knockout – or TKO for short. I’m no boxing expert, but the boxing analogy is especially apt for this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas because there was a live boxing match inside one of the exhibit halls complete with a full size ring, stadium seating and real fighters. I didn’t attend the match, but what I saw at CES was in many ways the equivalent of a TKO by an electronic device specifically for healthcare. Hardened CES vets like Dan Costa (Executive Editor of PC-Mag.com) said it was "the “coolest thing” he saw – for the entire show.
The electronic device I’m referring to wasn’t actually meant for consumer use (thus the TKO), but the consumer implications were as profound as any consumer device at this year’s show – or any other CES in recent memory. Life Technologies Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer is about the size of a large laser printer and costs about $150,000. By the end of the year, it will be able to sequence an entire human genome for about $1,000 in a few hours. By comparison, the cost to sequence the first human genome took 13 years, was completed in 2003 and cost almost $4B. Easy to see how this process has been in the exclusive domain of Universities and very well funded research. We can now begin to include genome sequencing at a greatly accelerated rate – and at a price point that rivals (and in some cases is lower) than other types of healthcare testing. Being able to tailor drug therapies with surgical precision and much higher efficacy will have profound effects on major diseases like cancer, Autism, diabetes and hypertension. Not a cure per se, but with a measurable effect on lifespan – globally. This isn't just Moore’s Law at work, this is a real breakthrough in silicon engineering – and it wasn’t the only announcement or visible commitment by healthcare at CES. There was a lot more.
Making its 3rd appearance inside CES was the digital Health Summit (dHS) with over 700 registered attendees. Over the course of two days there were a variety of keynotes, panels and presentations focused broadly on the “consumer” healthcare theme. Other healthcare events talk a good consumer game, but I applaud Jill Gilbert and her team for their collective efforts at putting this one right inside CES. Given all of the overlaps and intersects with electronic devices, and the need for those devices to be designed and engineered to work with us on the single most important aspect of our life – our healthcare – this is exactly where consumer healthcare needs to be. Bravo Jill.
At roughly the same time that Steve Ballmer was on the Main CES Stage bidding farewell to Microsoft’s big-booth commitment – John Sculley was center stage at dHS introducing his latest investment in healthcare in the form of Audax – a startup he’s helped to get funded to the tune of about $16M. While Mr. Sculley has a long history of healthcare investing, Audax represents yet another example of working with a college dropout turned Founder/CEO - in this case Grant Verstandig. Grant's personal experience with 7 knee surgeries (in less than 2 years) is helping to shape both his vision and innovation for a new consumer healthcare future.
Meanwhile, on the actual showroom floor, UnitedHealth Group launched their commitment to CES in the form of a 4,000 square foot booth and micro web site. On display were a wide range of consumer facing solutions and mobile apps (various stages of production) designed to help with different aspects of consumer healthcare life. Some of the apps were “in network” so not available to the general public, but many others were either already in Apple’s App Store – or will be soon – and still others are in development. While it’s always been fairly easy and common to vilify healthcare payers publicly, the commitment I saw and heard by UHG at CES was genuine and definitely had the full support of top leadership – including the very passionate Reed Tuckson (EVP and one of several dHS panelists from UHG). Aside from the XL booth size, the people I met had as much energy, enthusiasm and passion as any Silicon Valley startup. That was clearly the intent of Bud Flagstad (VP of Strategic Initiatives – and another dHS panelist).
Next door to UnitedHealth in the North Exhibit Hall was Ford’s 4,500 square foot booth. Quite literally the world of Telematics (in-car electronics) is sharing consumer foot traffic with Telehealth. One announcement aimed squarely at that synergy is a collaborative effort by Ford, Microsoft, Healthrageous and Blue Metal Architects to research how Bluetooth connected sensors can extend bioinformatics to assist with driver safety and convenience. While they’re still at the prototyping stage with these efforts the possibilities are intriguing and there is clearly a collaborative spirit on the part of some big players that I sincerely hope extends more broadly. Ford also announced plans to open an R&D facility this quarter in Silicon Valley. They are by no means the first auto manufacturer to do that, but given their global footprint - a welcome (and needed) addition.
Back on the Main CES Stage – Peter Diamandis was announcing the $10M Tricorder X-Prize as a part of Qualcomm’s Keynote address. The Tricorder X-Prize was actually announced earlier this year – but CES was clearly the preferred platform for sharing the vision and prize with the global electronic community – and it captured a lot of show interest and press.
Zeo, Fitbit, Qualcomm, the Continua Health Alliance and Carnegie Mellon University also had a significant presence in the Exhibit Hall with a variety of devices and services focused on personal healthcare – including a battery powered 5-blade razor from Schick. Ok – so that one was actually more of a traditional consumer gadget – but it’s getting a lot easier to see how these lines are blurring. Sports, fitness, health and daily life are a powerful combination and the intersection with consumer tailored devices is still in its infancy. Motorola, Toshiba and many others featured health and fitness in key portions of either their booth - their demos - or both. No shortage of TV's to be sure - but the health and fitness focus was more than just a subtle shift. It was prominent and pervasive.
Now to be fair, this isn’t the first year that healthcare has had a significant footprint at CES, but this was absolutely the year that the sparring gloves came off and Healthcare delivered some amazing punches – and then the TKO. Unfortunately, but not all that surprising, out of 12 categories in the CES annual competition there isn’t one for healthcare – and I do hope CNET changes that for CES 2013. In that sense, Microsoft's big-booth departure might be perfectly timed. Consumer healthcare could use the space and then maybe next year we'll deliver the full KO.
