Top 10 Medicine / HealthCare News of the last Decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News
• Top US News
• Top World News

Here are the top Medicine / HealthCare News of the last Decade:

1. Affordable Care Act. Access to healthcare is as important to advancement in healthcare. The largest legacy left by President Obama was the passing of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). It was signed into law in March 2010. It mandates that everyone gets health insurance and provided consumers with subsidies ("premium tax credits")

2. HealthCare Technology. Faster handheld computing systems and Electronic Health Records (EHR) has revolutionized patient care and access to health information. There are several examples where technology assist physicians: Augmented Reality helps brain surgeons blend digital imagery with the physical world allowing them to see deeper and reduce errors; Computer monitoring in hospitals help identify and address preventable mistakes; AI Tools help the blind tackle every day tasks; etc.

3. Gene sequencing. While the first whole genome was sequenced in 2000, we are seeing a revolution in genome sequencing (revealing the order of bases present in the entire genome of an organism. Note: The human genome contains about 3 billion base pairs that spell the instructions for making and maintaining a human being) with dramatic increases in speed coupled with massive reductions in cost. It has proved its usefulness as a diagnostic and prognostic tool.

4. Gene editing. Genome editing is the deliberate alteration of a selected DNS sequence in a living cell. This is done by cutting a stand of DNA at a specific point and allowing naturally existing cellular repair mechanisms to fix the broken DNA strands. One key technology for gene editing (discovered in 2012) is a molecular tool known an CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaces Short Palindromic Repeats). Researchers believe that CRISPR could revolutionize how they prevent and treat many diseases.

5. Stem Cell Research. Definition: Embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into any part of the body. As an embryo grows, most cells become specialized. This means they change into a specific part of the body, such as heart muscle cells, red blood cells or liver cells. While the first human embryonic stem cells were grown in a laboratory dish (in vitro) as early as 1998, researchers are now able to scale up the generation of red blood cells from stem cells to make a limitless supply of clean blood for transfusion. Since stem cells can be guided into becoming specific cells, they can be used to regenerate and repair diseased or damaged tissue.

6. Robotic Surgery. This allows doctors to perform complex procedures with more precision, flexibility and control than possible using conventional techniques.  It is a "minimally invasive" surgery - meaning that instead of operating with large incisions, the miniaturized surgical instruments used fit through quarter-inch incisions. Again, while we have had robotic surgery for many years, advances in robotic surgery range from the development of more accurate planning tools and software, to increased automation of tasks during surgery.

7. 3D Printing. Human organs have been artificially built using 3D printing procedures for planned organ substitution. While the first human blood vessels were 3D bio-printed in 2009, in the last decade we have seen advancement in 3D printing technology that enable production of bones, ears, exoskeletons, windpipes, blood vessels, vascular networks, tissues and simple organs. We are not quite at the point where the human heart can be 3D printed. This day is not too far away.

Top World News from the last Decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News
• Top US News

Here are the top World News for the last decade:

1. Brexit. In June 2016, the British people voted for Britain to leave the European Union after a historic referendum in which they rejected the advice of the main Westminster party leaders. Instead they opted to take a plunge into the political unknown.

2. Narendra Modi. He took office in 2014. Since then, Modi has attempted to improve efficiency in the bureaucracy; centralized power by abolishing the Planning Commission. He began a high profile sanitation campaign and initiated the demonetization of high-denomination banknotes. His party received a landslide victory in May 2019 and was re-elected. He has, since then, revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution - which granted Kashmir special status.

3. Prince William and Kate Middleton. In April 2011, 3 billion people tuned in to watch the wedding in Westminster Church in London.  Given that almost 40% of the world's population watched the event, it had to be among the top news of the decade.

4. Russian invasion of Ukraine. In March 2014, Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was toppled in anti-government protests. Subsequently, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

5. Hong Kong Protests. In April 2019, the Chinese Government introduced an extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China under certain circumstanced. Opponents were concerned that this risked unfair trials and violent treatment and could be used to target activists and journalists.

6. Pope Francis. In March 2013, Pope Benedict XVI abdicated - becoming the first pope to voluntarily resign since Celestine V in 1294. Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope, becoming the first South American to lead the Roman Catholic Church. He assumed the name of Pope Francis 

7. Muammar Gadaffi. The deposed Libyan leader was captured and killed on October 2011 by revolutionaries - ending his 42-year regime during which time his authoritarian administration violated human rights and financed global terrorism.

Top US News from the last decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions
• Top Business News

Here are the top US News for the last decade:

1. The Obama Presidency. Barack Obama took office on Jan 2009 and remained in office for most of this last decade (until Jan 2017). His major accomplishments include passing the healthcare reform, saving the Auto Industry, instituting sweeping legislations to reform the financial industry, raised fuel efficiency standards, and much more

2. Elimination of Osama bin Laden. The founder and first leader of Al-Qaeda was eliminated on May 2011 by United States Navy SEALs. He was the mastermind of the attacks on 9/11 and prompted the United States to initiate the War on Terror.

3. LGBT rights. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) is a social movement that advocates full acceptance of LGBT people in society. In June 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited by a state.

4. MeToo movement. This is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. While the term was coined in 2006 (on MySpace) by Tarana Burke, it developed into a broader "movement" following the 2017 use of #MeToo as a hashtag during the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations.

5. US Withdrawal from Paris Climate Accord. The US is the only country that will not participate in the pact. This is even while global temperatures are set to rise 3C and worsening extreme weather will drive millions into poverty. The reasons provided for withdrawing from the accord is due to the "unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses and taxpayers."

6. Trump Presidency. Whether or not Donald Trump gets impeached by the Senate, his Presidency has been a disaster. While the tradition of past American Presidents has been to seek unity, he has willfully indulged in a politics of division. He has insulted and alienated our friends and allies while cozying up to right-wing nationalist autocrats and dictators. The White House is now viewed as dishonest and providing misinformation (stating verifiable falsehoods), while we would expect the opposite - of promoting policies based on reality. The Office of the President is demeaned by his using foul, angry language. His tweets attack his critics while stoking fear and outrage among his supporters. Even teenager and Time Magazine Person Of the Year, Greta Thunberg, was not spared from his venom.

Top Business News from the last decade

This is a continuation of the "Top 10" lists of the decade. The earlier posts are:

• Top Technology Disruptions

Here are the top Business News from the last decade:

1. China is easily the top business news of the last decade. In 2015 China emerged as the world's largest economy - on the basis of purchasing power parity. In the last few years the trade war between the US and China has escalated. 

2. Cryptocurrency. This is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange. It uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions; control the creation of additional units; and verify the transfer of assets. All this is done using Blockchain technology. Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. The price of Bitcoin skyrocketed from under $800 in late 2016 to an all-time high of $19,783 in  December 2017. The crypto bubble burst in early 2018, but Bitcoin still finished the decade with a global market cap of more than $140b. 

3. Longest Bull Market run. The decade began with the remnants of the great recession of 2008 and the scariest financial crisis since the 1930s. A slow, but steady economic recovery, coupled with unprecedented aid from the Federal Reserve, catapulted the Dow from 6,500 to the 28,500 today. The S&P is almost at 5x from the low of 666 in 2009.

4. FinTech. The last decade has seen more progress in Finance Technology than the past hundred years. Huge global banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and CitiGroup are now big FinTech investors. Artificial Intelligence and advanced high-frequency trading algorithms have become a central part of investment banking. The emergence of trading apps like Robinhood, mobile payment apps like Venmo provide unprecedented banking services from the Smartphone. 

5. Greek Economy. It suffered the longest recession of any advanced capitalist economy to date. The crisis led to the loss of confidence in the Greek economy. The government enacted 12 rounds of tax increases, spending cuts and reforms from 2010 to 2016.

6. Debt Ceiling. In 2011, the Republican-controlled House demanded spending concessions from then President Obama before they would agree to raise the debt ceiling. The credit-rating agency Standard & Poor downgraded its US credit rating for the first time in history, dropping it from AAA to AA+.

7. Oil price collapse. In the previous decade, Oil prices rose significantly - attributed rising oil demand in India and China. In the middle of 2014, Oil prices started declining -  attributed to significant increase in oil production in the US (thanks to fracking), and the declining demand from emerging countries.

8. Merger of AT&T and Time Warner. This $108b merger (completed in 2018) is significant because AT&T owns the infrastructure to deliver content. Time Warner owns content producers, studios, and networks like HBO that create content. The combined company would benefit from being vertically integrated. 

Top 10 Lists for the Decade

As the 2010-2019 decade draws to a close, I will post (over the next 10 days - with a break on Christmas Day) a "Top 10" list on each of the following topics:

1. Technology Disruptions (Later in this post)
2. Business
3. US News
4. World News
5. Medicine / HealthCare
6. People (Influencers)
7. Sports
8. Movies
9. Music
10. Tragedies / Disasters

Here are my Top Technology Disruptions in the last decade:

1. SmartPhones - While the Smartphone existed in 2010, we continued to rely on multiple gadgets. Today, we have all these gadgets rolled into one.

2. Cloud, Data and AI - Computing has grown to become a utility over the last decade. Along with Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, these behind-the-scenes technologies power so many tasks that we do today.

3. Streaming - Netflix (app launched in 2010), Hulu and Amazon Prime have changed the face of entertainment. The $64m question is did bigger phone screens help Netflix become popular or was Netflix the reason why our phone screens got bigger?

4. Virtual Assistants - today it is common for 3-year old kids using their voice to command devices to play music. Between Siri, Alexa and Google, we can get the news, sports and weather using our voice.

5. Sharing Economy - Today, Airbnb has more room listings that all of the available rooms of the world's top five hotel chains combined. Uber (launched in 2010) was the first app to truly take advantage of faster cellular networks and improved location services on a SmartPhone

6. Autonomous Vehicles - Tesla led the way by turning the Model S into a self-driving vehicle by downloading an "upgrade". Talk about the mother of all in-app purchases! 

7. Wearables - Fitbit, Garmin and Apple made fitness tracking devices.  They helped us boost our daily activity by meeting goals for steps taken, tracking the amount and quality of sleep. They are moving towards mainstream MedicalCare as well.

8. Edge Computing - With the advent of 4G Networks (especially 4G LTE), SmartPhones no longer needed to be tethered to WiFi networks to be useful. With 5G offering a 10x to 100x improvement over 4G, the next decade promises to be exciting!

Open Letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham

Dear Sen. Graham,

You have been receiving a lot of praise for your fiery performance at the hearing of Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday, September 27th on Capitol Hill. Pardon me if I am not among those to congratulate you. As Norman Reedus said, "The dogs with the loudest bark are the ones that are most afraid."

The words that you used are clear indications to me of your fear. You said, "If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you [Democrats] want to do is destroy this guy’s life." In fact, I will contend that what Sen. Feinstein was not only responsible, but also the correct approach. She did not want to sully Justice Kavanaugh's reputation at the first drop of a hint that something may be askew about his character. As far as Sen. Schumer saying, "I’ll oppose judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything," that was more of a rhetoric - which you are prone to using yourself. Sen. Feinstein probably used all the means available to her to validate Dr. Ford's claim(s). Given the sensitive nature of the matter, it would have been irresponsible for Sen. Feinstein to "go public" with the information. It was not until Dr. Ford chose to talk to the Washington Post's Emma Brown on September 16th. did the information come out the open. This decision could only have been made by Dr. Ford and no one else.

The Democrats did not "orchestrate" this. You were in a rush to get your boy confirmed and this accusation was a thorn on your side. 

You said to Judge Kavanaugh, "You got nothing to apologize for. I cannot imagine what you and your family have gone through." You certainly got one thing right there Sen. Graham. Ashley (Judge Kavanaugh's wife) and their two daughters have certainly been through hell. Unfortunately, they did not have a choice in the matter. This was brought to them by Judge Kavanaugh. Your indignation could have been directed at Judge Kavanaugh by asking him, "How could you have the gumption to drag Ashley and your children through this?"

On the other hand, Sen. Graham, did you for a moment think about what Dr. Ford and her family has been through? In this case, she did have a choice. She need not have come forward and perform her "civic duty". She could have spared herself and her family from this circus - an atmosphere created by you and your colleague Sen. Grassley. If you and Sen. Grassley had your way, Judge Kavanaugh would have been confirmed into the Supreme Court by now. Thankfully, saner minds like Se. Flake prevailed and we will have a proper investigation into this.

Despite being aware of all the #metoo incidents over the last year or so, you made a statement as ill conceived as "It’s been my understanding that if you drug women and rape them for two years in high school, you probably don’t stop". Try saying that to the victims of  Charlie Rose, Bill O'Reilly, Les Moonves, et al ... All these men were "paragons of virtue" even in the public eye. In the case of your boy, he needed "testimonials" from "scores of women that he worked with" that his "pants were zipped up" the whole time.

The final outcome of the investigation may be inconclusive. It is, however, the respectful thing to do to Dr. Ford and all other women who have been sexually assaulted. My request to you, Sen. Graham, is to make a public statement to all victims of sexual abuse that you apologize for your outburst which was politically motivated and that you had no intent of dismissing women who have the courage to come forward as "opportunists". 

Short, but Sweet concert

Ananya Ashok gave a short, 90-minute concert under the auspices of South India Fine Arts at the Santa Clara Convention center on Sunday, October 1st, 2017. She was accompanied on the veena by Hrishikesh Chary and on the mridangam by Vignesh Venkataraman.

She began her concert with the Tyaagaraaja kriti bhavanuta na in mOhanam. This was followed by the popular Dikshitar kriti sarasijanabha sOdari in naagagaandhari - an apt song on devi considering that navratri had just concluded. Ananya sang the Purandara Dasa kriti, nInE anAtha bandhu next. The neraval on madanayya madhusUdananendare mundindali bandodagide krishna was exquisite. She sang the fast paced Papanasam Sivan kriti saravanabava guhane shanmukhane next. This was the lead in to the main song, which she sang next. Her detailed alapana in Bhairavi was truly a treat to listen to. She sang the Shyama Shastri classic, kamakshi amba. Hrishikesh also rendered a superb Bhairavi alapana. Vignesh's taniavartanam in mishra chaapu was shortened due to the condensed time of the concert. Nevertheless, he did justice in his allotted time. Ananya concluded her concert with a soulful rendering of the padam by muttuAndavar in khamAs, theruvil vArAnO. 

In this short concert, Ananya had weaved in songs from all three major composers. She included songs in Telegu, Kannada and Tamil.

Kudos to South India Fine Arts for providing the platform for up and coming, young artistes. The nearly full Elizabeth Hangs is testimony to the support from the audience in the Bay Area.

We certainly hope to listen to a full length concert by Ananya (for Bay Area audiences) in the near future.