The bloody patent battle over a healing machine - Fortune Management

<base href="data:"><div style="text-align: left; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">A patent royalty is a beautiful thing. It is so much sweeter than found money because it is more than just good luck. It means that one party is paying another to use an invention. And before the lawyers got to arguing over claim constructions and prior art, before the government regulators and hospitals screamed enough was enough, and before the Russians came to Texas to explain Soviet-era library policies, there were few things more beautiful or lucrative in the world of patent royalties than the VAC.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">It's pronounced "vack" and stands for vacuum-assisted closure. Here's what it is: You cut a piece of foam to size and place it in a wound as a barrier and protector. Then you cover the wound and seal it up. One end of a tube goes through the seal and the other goes into a small pump. The pump produces negative pressure, creating an even vacuum through the foam, and the wound is pulled together and heals. If it sounds simple, it's because it is simple.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">For much of the past 20 years this device was controlled by a San Antonio company called Kinetic Concepts Inc. The VAC transformed KCI from a second-tier medical manufacturer into a global juggernaut.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">For Wake Forest University, which licensed the VAC patents to KCI, the device has meant about $500 million in royalties. Based almost entirely on the VAC deal, the university was ranked fifth by the Association of University Technology Managers in its most recent survey of licensing income, trailing only Columbia, New York University, Northwestern, and the University of California system. In recent years the KCI payments have propped up the bottom line of the university's medical center, and the VAC money has paid for research, recruiting, and construction that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">As you might imagine, all that success gave KCI and Wake Forest a powerful incentive to build a fence, to protect the patents at all cost. And it gave everybody else an equally powerful incentive to find a way through the fence.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">This is the story of what happens when there are billions of dollars wrapped up in a prosaic piece of technology that at its core is closer to your kid's science-fair entry than the Human Genome Project, one that despite all the commercial success and some 4 million or so patients still has its share of doubters in the medical community. It's a story about luck and timing and the squeezing of the health care dollar. It is about betrayal and wrangling over patents. And mostly it is about invention, the tenuous and uncertain act of breathing life into an idea that may or may not have been yours all along.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Dr. Louis Argenta says he invented the VAC, and he has the patents to prove it. He's a plastic surgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., but is quick to point out that he isn't <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">that</i> kind of plastic surgeon. He deals with messy and nasty injuries that often can't or won't heal on their own. One night in the late 1980s, he was lying in bed and unable to sleep. He was reading <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Gulag Archipelago</i> and was worried about a patient who was slowly dying from an infected wound that couldn't be closed with surgery because the stitches would make things worse. "And, just suddenly," he would say later, "the concept of just using a giant vacuum -- we had played with vacuums in the laboratory a little bit, but this was the concept of using a giant vacuum to pull this whole thing together." He sketched a rough drawing in the margins of his book, and his wife told him to go back to sleep.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="http://fortuneaskannie.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/how_it_works.jpg" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQphZ-WRqbiVX6hnyVasnNQk6b5_g7LjbcYLLV3jFjdLFb7jpVSsi3_cYL9R6B9j8rRD_0kE_DNjTz_BVEUCu_rxcEwDaf9SRwyQTVBY_BuAnqANtmb785Rq5ZqN9zqZ2Uzq1g7iCUg0/s1600/how_it_works-758939.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5819964408468103618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQphZ-WRqbiVX6hnyVasnNQk6b5_g7LjbcYLLV3jFjdLFb7jpVSsi3_cYL9R6B9j8rRD_0kE_DNjTz_BVEUCu_rxcEwDaf9SRwyQTVBY_BuAnqANtmb785Rq5ZqN9zqZ2Uzq1g7iCUg0/s320/how_it_works-758939.jpg" /></a></a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The next morning he talked to his lab manager, Michael Morykwas, a biomedical engineer, and they began working on a prototype. They tried it with success on pigs. But before they could put a device on a patient, they needed the approval of the hospital's ethics committee, which hemmed and hawed but eventually consented. The primitive VAC, Argenta would say, saved his patient's life.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">For the next few years Argenta and Morykwas tinkered with their invention. In 1991 the university applied for a patent on their behalf and began shopping the device around. Wake Forest agreed to pay them half of any royalties, which to date has meant about $120 million apiece. But back then, getting rich seemed like a pipe dream. The leading medical journal for plastic surgery rejected a paper on their research, and there was little interest from the health care industry's biggest players. A licensing deal was struck in 1993 with KCI, which had a business renting and selling medical beds with air chambers. It already had products that used pumps. This would be one more. The first VAC hit the market in 1995, two years before the patents were granted and any research was published.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Negative pressure is suction, and suction has long been used to drain wounds and draw infections to the surface. What's different in wound therapy is that the pressure is maintained. Before the VAC came on the scene, the prevailing belief was that long periods of suction would damage the healthy skin that surrounds a wound.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">By 1999, KCI had built a $50-million-a-year VAC business through word of mouth, a go-go sales force, and top-notch customer service. That's nothing to sneeze at, but it was only the beginning. In late 2000, Medicare began reimbursing for the use of the VAC, and suddenly a therapy on the fringes came with its own revenue stream as doctors used the devices to treat diabetic ulcers and pressure sores. With the government's seal of approval, VAC revenue climbed to nearly $500 million by the end of 2003, on the way to becoming a billion-dollar product line.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">That brought the money. Respect came in the field hospitals for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">In clinical language, the immense destruction caused by an improvised explosive device, or IED, is referred to as a high-energy soft-tissue injury. These can be devastating wounds, prone to infection and hard to close. Slight variations in healing can mean the difference in whether or where a limb is amputated. Dr. Chris Coppola operated on these wounds during two trips to Iraq. The dust and sand swirled everywhere, forcing the surgeons to use shipping containers as ORs. The VAC became such a critical part of their treatment that the medical staff pushed the military brass to give the device quick clearance for use during the airlift of wounded soldiers from the field to hospitals in Germany.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">"We got our Ph.D. in the VAC over there," Coppola says, and there is little enthusiasm in his voice when he remembers this education. Now a pediatric surgeon in Danville, Pa., Coppola has written two memoirs of his time in Iraq, and he was one of the authors of a widely circulated medical journal article on the use of the VAC for treating traumatic injuries. "Little by little we gain knowledge," he says, "and it's a quite sad reality that we learn more about surgery and trauma during the years of war than we do in the time between wars."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">It is not surprising that a low-tech product with such a fantastic combination of margin and mission would attract attention from competitors. Medical devices are particularly vulnerable to being copied because, unlike pharmaceuticals, the patents tend to build on previous discoveries and they don't rely on a unique molecule. And over time, as a company fights to hold on to its patents, it is forced to draw an ever sharper line between what's covered by the patent and what isn't.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">More ...</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; "><a href="http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/30/kci-vac-patent-fight/">http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/30/kci-vac-patent-fight/</a></div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

The bloody patent battle over a healing machine - Fortune Management

A patent royalty is a beautiful thing. It is so much sweeter than found money because it is more than just good luck. It means that one part...

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Technology will replace 80% of what doctors do - Fortune Tech

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Healthcare today is often really the "practice of medicine" rather than the "science of medicine."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Take fever as an example. For 150 years, doctors have routinely prescribed antipyretics like ibuprofen to help reduce fever. But in 2005, researchers at the University of Miami, Florida, ran a <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/sur.2005.6.369" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">study</a>of 82 intensive care patients. The patients were randomly assigned to receive antipyretics either if their temperature rose beyond 101.3°F ("standard treatment") or only if their temperature reached 104°F. As the trial progressed, seven people getting the standard treatment died, while there was only one death in the group of patients allowed to have a higher fever. At this point, the trial was stopped because the team felt it would be unethical to allow any more patients to get the <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">standard treatment</i>.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">So when something as basic as fever reduction is a hallmark of the "practice of medicine" and hasn't been challenged for 100+ years, we have to ask: What else might be practiced due to tradition rather than science?</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Today's diagnoses are partially informed by patients' medical histories and partially by symptoms (but patients are bad at communicating what's really going on). They are mostly informed by advertising and the doctor's half-remembered and potentially obsolete lessons from medical school (which are laden with cognitive biases, recency biases, and other human errors). Many times, if you ask three doctors to look at the same problem, you'll get three different diagnoses and three different treatment plans.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">The net effect is patient outcomes that are inferior to and more expensive than what they should be. A Johns Hopkins <a href="http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/21/11/894.abstract?sid=647c745e-4b1f-45e4-8883-a700adfc0005" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">study</a> found that as many as 40,500 patients die in an ICU in the U.S. each year due to misdiagnosis, rivaling the number of deaths from breast cancer. Yet another <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/12/04/technology-doctors-khosla/article.aspx%3Farticleid=486642" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">study</a>found that 'system-related factors', e.g. poor processes, teamwork, and communication, were involved in 65% of studied diagnostic error cases. 'Cognitive factors' were involved in 75%, with 'premature closure' (sticking with the initial diagnosis and ignoring reasonable alternatives) as the most common cause. These types of diagnostic errors also add to rising healthcare expenditures, costing <a href="https://www.rti.org/publications/abstract.cfm?pubid=18681" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">$300,000</a> per malpractice claim.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Healthcare should become more about data-driven deduction and less about trial-and-error. That's hard to pull off without technology, because of the increasing amount of data and research available. Next-generation medicine will utilize more complex models of physiology, and more sensor data than a human MD could comprehend, to suggest personalized diagnosis. Thousands of baseline and multi-omic data points, more integrative history, and demeanor will inform each diagnosis. Ever-improving dialog manager systems will help make data capture and exploration from patients more accurate and comprehensive. Data science will be key to this. In the end, it will reduce costs, reduce physician workloads, and improve patient care.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Replacing 80% of what doctors do?</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Much of what physicians do (checkups, testing, diagnosis, prescription, behavior modification, etc.) can be done better by sensors, passive and active data collection, and analytics. But, doctors aren't supposed to just measure. They're supposed to consume all that data, consider it in context of the latest medical findings and the patient's history, and figure out if something's wrong. Computers can take on much of that diagnosis and treatment and even do these functions better than the average doctor (while considering more options and making fewer errors). Most doctors couldn't possibly read and digest all of the latest 5,000 research articles on heart disease. And, most of the average doctor's medical knowledge is from when they were in medical school, while cognitive limitations prevent them from remembering the 10,000+ diseases humans can get.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">Computers are better at organizing and recalling complex information than a hotshot Harvard MD. They're also better at integrating and balancing considerations of patient symptoms, history, demeanor, environmental factors, and population management guidelines than the average physician. Besides, 50% of MDs are below average! Computers also have much lower error rates. Shouldn't we take advantage of that when it comes to our health?!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">Technology compensates for human deficiencies and amplifies our strengths – MDs and less-trained medical professionals can do more. Eventually, computers <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">will</i> replace 80% of what doctors do and amplify their capabilities. Lifecom showed in clinical trials that medical assistants using a diagnostic knowledge engine were 91% accurate <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">without using labs, imaging, or exams</i>. Another clinical study by the same company demonstrated that 75% of cases can be safely triaged to be treated by RNs, with the remainder handled by doctors. A MassGen <a href="http://jamia.bmj.com/content/19/4/591.abstract?sid=f70f49c4-df0d-4e45-8cf3-e3b90490cef0" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">study</a> found that 25% of the time, a medical record for patients who wound up with 'high risk diagnoses' had 'high information clinical findings' before a physician finally made the diagnosis — in other words, there was a significant delay that might have been avoided had a clinical decision support system been used to parse the notes!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">New technologies will make the receptive doctors better at their jobs – quicker, more accurate, and more fact-based. There is a tremendous opportunity in the influx of data that has never before been available. Once we have a large enough dataset, and an addressable database of research studies, we'll be able to identify patterns and physiological interactions in ways that weren't possible before.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Over time, doctors will increase their reliance on technology for triage, diagnosis, and decision-making. Eventually, we'll need fewer doctors, and every patient will receive the best care. Diagnosis and treatment planning will be done by a computer, used in concert with empathetic support from medical personnel selected more for their caring personalities than for their diagnostic abilities. No brilliant diagnostician with bad manners, a la "Dr. House," will be needed in direct patient contact. Instead, we'll use "Dr. Algorithm" to provide the diagnosis, while the most humane humans provide the care.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Systems will start as clumsy toddlers and develop to maturity and efficiency</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Don't expect ace diagnosis systems overnight. They may start as seemingly minor point innovations or as clumsy-sounding systems not ready for prime time.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Imagine using the AliveCor* iPhone case to take an ECG every day for less than $1/test. This device and others like it would capture a lot more information than the typical heart patient's semiannual ECG check at the doctor's office (it would also cost a lot less). What if you could send 500 "auto-diagnosed" ECGs to your doctor for less than it costs to get one ECG done in the hospital? Today, most heart disease is identified only after patients have heart attacks. But imagine having preventative cardiac care, enabled by machine-learning software that identifies abnormalities and <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">predicts</i> episodes. We could discover most heart disease before a heart attack or stroke and address it at a fraction of the cost of care that would be needed following such a trauma. But we need a decades-worth of data to be really good at it.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">Dermatology appointments could be handled by CellScope*, which produces low-cost iPhone attachments for imaging skin moles, rashes, ear infections, and (in the future) your retina or throat. Those images could be processed by algorithms to detect patterns that warrant closer inspection. A device like the Eyenetra* could give you an eye test and fit you for glasses at little cost or hassle. Adamant* is attempting to produce a chip that can identify hundreds of gases in your breath, which could be used to detect and even <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">identify</i> different types of lung cancer, all for far less than a big CT scanner that'll just tell you that you have a nodule. Ginger.io* monitors your rate of emailing, tweeting, texting, and calling to gauge your social activity. By watching for changes in your behavior, it can tell how you're doing far better than a psychiatrist.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="http://www.lifecomhealth.com/" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "></a>These point innovations will seem immaterial at first, but, when there are enough of them, they will integrate and start to feel like a revolution. The technologies of 2020 will be as different from today's systems as the car floor-mounted, multi-pound cell phones with bulky handset cords of 1986 are from today's iPhones!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The human element will survive</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Some critics of more automated healthcare argue that medicine isn't just about inputting symptoms and receiving a diagnosis; it's about building relationships between providers and patients. Providing good bedside manner and answering certain questions can often be handled better by a person than a machine, but you generally don't need a medical degree to do that. Nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other less expensive, non-MD caregivers could do this just as well as doctors (if not better) and spend more time providing personal, compassionate care. I'm not advocating the removal of the human front-end here. I'm arguing that we should build robust back-end sensor technology and diagnostics through sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence operating on data in greater volumes than humans can handle.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">A transition to automation has already happened in other areas where we once thought human judgment was required. Most commercial flying is now done by auto-pilot, not by the captain. Algorithmic trading now drives most stock market volume. Google's (<a href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=GOOG" rel="external" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">GOOG</a>) self-driving car has had zero accidents driving <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-self-driving-car-logs-more-miles-on.html" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">300,000 miles</a> on normal streets. The same replacement of human involvement by computers will also happen in healthcare. This will create a more comprehensive understanding of patients and improve health outcomes with more personalized treatment. Physicians will have MORE time to spend talking to their patients, making sure they understand, socializing care, and finding out the harder-to-measure pieces of information because they'll spend a less time gathering data and referring to old notes. And, they will be able to handle many more patients, reducing costs.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The source of healthcare innovation</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Where will all this innovation come from? Some believe we have to work within the constraints of the medical establishment. I disagree.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">Innovation seldom happens from the inside because existing incentives are usually set up to discourage disruption. Pharma companies push marginally different drugs instead of potentially better generic solutions because they want you to be a drug subscriber and generate recurring revenue for as long as possible. Medical device manufacturers don't want to cannibalize sales of their expensive equipment by providing cheaper, more accessible monitoring devices. The traditional players will lobby/goad/pay/intimidate doctors and regulators to reject innovation. Expecting the medical establishment to do anything different is expecting them to reduce their own profits. Granted, these are generalizations and there are many great and ethical doctors and organizations.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; ">Fortunately, it doesn't matter if the establishment tries to do this or not, because it will happen regardless. And it may start at the periphery, e.g. with the 40 million uninsured Americans or the hundreds of millions of people in India with no access. This shift in healthcare delivery will allow for less money to be spent on capital equipment, cutting costs. It will allow us to provide care and basic service to those who can't afford it now. It will help avoid errors. And, it will prevent simple things from getting worse before being addressed.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><a href="http://www.lifecomhealth.com/" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "></a>Entrepreneurs can come at these challenges and inject new insight. They can ask naïve questions that get at the heart of pervasive and sometimes unperceived assumptions. They can leverage the many insiders to provide real understanding of medicine at the right time. They can build smart computers to be objective cost minimizers <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">while</em> being care optimizers.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">This evolution will take time, but it won't take as long as people think. The move will happen in fits and starts along different pathways, with many course corrections, steps backward, and mistakes. Maybe we'll start seeing disruption at the fringes. Many naïve innovators, maybe even 90% of them, will attempt this change and fail. But, a few will succeed and change the system. For those of us who support entrepreneurs and companies that create this change, most investments will be lost, but more money will be made than lost through the few successes. None of us knows how this space will turn out, but there's a huge opportunity for technologists, entrepreneurs, and other forward-thinkers to reduce healthcare expenditures and improve patient care at the very same time.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; position: static; z-index: auto; "><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, CA. A longer version of this story can be<a href="http://www.khoslaventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20_percent_doctor_included.doc" target="new" rel="external nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> found here on its website.</a></i></div></div><a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/12/04/technology-doctors-khosla/">http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/12/04/technology-doctors-khosla/</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Technology will replace 80% of what doctors do - Fortune Tech

Healthcare today is often really the "practice of medicine" rather than the "science of medicine." Take fever as an exam...

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FRANCES "COLONIAL AMBITIONS" IN SYRIA

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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOdmzZEEvthsKGGljktbzo1FsrvFILMp1t3fHNsFsmsWvIPSgbhQMaU0e4T5MP_LVhyphenhyphenShBafOa2bWrZMs0Ky2bDQ3bHcQKnyJrIIXz7RFou5X60bWlj8cyEgEWp_i7K0sFphWAUKhSp_y/s1600/syria_french_mandate_france_flag_postcard-p239622958889388587envli_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOdmzZEEvthsKGGljktbzo1FsrvFILMp1t3fHNsFsmsWvIPSgbhQMaU0e4T5MP_LVhyphenhyphenShBafOa2bWrZMs0Ky2bDQ3bHcQKnyJrIIXz7RFou5X60bWlj8cyEgEWp_i7K0sFphWAUKhSp_y/s400/syria_french_mandate_france_flag_postcard-p239622958889388587envli_400.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French Syrian Mandate Flag</td></tr></tbody></table><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FRENCH COLONIZERS HAVE NOT ACCEPTED THE LOSS OF THEIR COLONY</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Elena Gromova</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">History stutters: the new leader of the SYRIAN National Coalition, knighted by the West, is none other than the grand-son of one of the chief collaborators of the FRENCH occupation of SYRIA in the 20s. Formerly, the FRENCH colonial power resorted to religious leaders to teach submission to the people under its domination; today it relies on clerics to overthrow the secular regime of the SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HydzNX-fa4DnYDlnEvSyoT9akeSACX7DT_nh_9pnbsBZEvcwb23nTr3S7RHDgfsVkCGNNt8MADa7ImB9njLp9_crrGmfZpNQtQZRJgprFUs654C50aBOcq1k_CZ9NSieGB8o0Z7aOZyP/s1600/520px-French_Empire_1919-1939.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HydzNX-fa4DnYDlnEvSyoT9akeSACX7DT_nh_9pnbsBZEvcwb23nTr3S7RHDgfsVkCGNNt8MADa7ImB9njLp9_crrGmfZpNQtQZRJgprFUs654C50aBOcq1k_CZ9NSieGB8o0Z7aOZyP/s640/520px-French_Empire_1919-1939.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span> </div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">More than 70 years has passed and the grandson of this Nur-Eddin – Mouaz al-Khatib, a former preacher at the Umayyad mosque in Damascus and now a deserter and traitor – has been elected head of the “QATAR COALITION” which was created on 11 November at a meeting in DOHA.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB70EfArF3CEg-qYhf0VfWhdOH8y9mYuFXXzm_Rn9Xxxzt-4rXVr5Vo_cfxSNmPKaNtACNkZ38Z8zhp_XOTpp86Ywwgn6tk0AmKVqL7dZcv7wRozAd1cbKDh-lvYllODTm6OiALSgsUPA8/s1600/images2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB70EfArF3CEg-qYhf0VfWhdOH8y9mYuFXXzm_Rn9Xxxzt-4rXVr5Vo_cfxSNmPKaNtACNkZ38Z8zhp_XOTpp86Ywwgn6tk0AmKVqL7dZcv7wRozAd1cbKDh-lvYllODTm6OiALSgsUPA8/s400/images2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Left Picture<span style="font-size: large;">: </span>French Circassian Cavalry assembling outside the railway station at Damascus, French Mandate of Syria in preparation of the surrendering ceremony to Axis officials, Sep 1941</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">FRANCE has shown its gratitude to the third-generation collaborator al-Khatib, whose grandfather collaborated with the colonisers, for his faithful service. Namely the former colonial power has been the first to recognise the “QATAR COALITION” as a legitimate representative of the SYRIAN people. It is no surprise that the flag of the “opposition” – green, white and black with three stars – is the same as the flag from the time when SYRIA was under FRENCH mandate.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">No sooner had SYRIA gained their freedom from TURKISH rule than it immediately fell under the authority of the FRENCH in 1920, and the League of Nations gave FRANCE a mandate to control SYRIA. The FRENCH occupation army, headed by General Henri Gouraud, faced weak opposition from an armed SYRIAN army which had only just been formed and had nothing except rifles and machine guns, while the FRENCH had heavy artillery and aircraft. The conflict was one-sided.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">GENERAL YUSUF AL-’AZMA 1883-1920</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The SYRIAN Minister of War Yusuf al-’Azma accepted the battle, knowing it would be impossible to win, but being a true patriot of his homeland, he was unable to allow the FRENCH to take Damascus without a fight. The battle took place 23 kilometres from Damascus, in the mountainous region of Maysalun. Yusuf al-’Azma personally took part in the one-sided battle. The soldiers fought for a whole day, but the superiority of the FRENCH was just too great. Only when all the SYRIAN soldiers had been killed were the FRENCH able to advance on Damascus.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Syrians and Druses rose up against the FRENCH occupiers in 1925 and even managed to liberate Damascus, but the FRENCH used their military strength to quash the uprising in 1927. The first shot of the uprising was fired on 7 June 1925 – a hero of the uprising, Hussein Murshid Radwan, wounded a FRENCH officer when he ordered a peaceful anti-FRENCH demonstration to be broken up.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SYRIA reveres its heroes and at the beginning of November, a magnificent monument was erected in the city of Suwayda in Hussein Murshid Radwan’s honour. The sculptor, Fuad Naim, has paid particular attention to the hero’s enormous sword which he has clenched in his mighty hand while challenging the FRENCH to battle.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FRANCE LOST SYRIA. SOMETHING IT CANNOT OVERCOME IT SEEMS </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In the center of Damascus, meanwhile, there is a monument in honor of the SYRIAN Defense Minister Yusuf al-’Azma, a hero of the Battle of Maysalun Pass. Here we have genuine insurgents who fought for a free SYRIA. Now, however, the word “insurgent” has been completely defiled and is used today to refer to all sorts of rubbish recruited from all corners of the world who are high on drugs and murdering SYRIANS for money.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Until quite recently there was another monument in honour of al-’Azma which stood near the General Staff building. On 3 September this year, however, during an attack on the General Staff building, terrorists did not spare this monument. The vandals destroyed it. Can SYRIA’S history really be that dear to these mercenaries? Or to the descendants of those who collaborated with the occupiers?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: red;">70 years has passed since FRANCE lost SYRIA as one of its colonies and was forced to <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">recognize</span></span> its independence. As recent events have shown, however, FRANCE just cannot ignore the colonial itch</span>. It is doing everything to regain its sovereignty, although this time around, even if they conquer SYRIA, it would no longer be full sovereignty since FRANCE would have to share it with the USA, Turkey and other NATO partners. This is not troubling Hollande, however, who is backing every reprobate in SYRIA so long as the reprobate’s position falls within the neocolonial plans of FRANCE’S false socialists.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Back in the summer, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault did not hesitate in saying that FRANCE was supplying SYRIAN fighters with communication equipment and other technology. He spoke as though the equipment was not for the purpose of killing. But it is all the same – is it really not going to aid the murderers?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FRANCES INTENTIONS TO CREATE A “BUFFER” ZONE AND A “NO-FLY” ZONE HAD TO BE ABOLISHED </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And now the pseudo-socialist François Hollande has held a meeting with the old collaborator’s grandson, Mouaz al-Khatib. After the meeting in Paris, the ambassador of the SYRIAN terrorists showed up – a certain Munzir Makhous who, together with his boss, was part of the delegation who visited the Élysée Palace and implored Hollande to supply the fighters with heavy artillery. Hollande promised to bring the matter up for discussion with the countries of the EU.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrgZRNBG0fQ6K8Jd4kGMcLKDTxsVsFHc0U0qxA7z1inQJFZnHovC015fmetjju5sU45ISIMUz68P2lMwP1qB9XFzW0kcwJZtaterPHDdApVhqyKmuJdatJ90-5mvK9-d0Es1J0hX0pxOq2/s1600/syria_france.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrgZRNBG0fQ6K8Jd4kGMcLKDTxsVsFHc0U0qxA7z1inQJFZnHovC015fmetjju5sU45ISIMUz68P2lMwP1qB9XFzW0kcwJZtaterPHDdApVhqyKmuJdatJ90-5mvK9-d0Es1J0hX0pxOq2/s320/syria_france.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span>Earlier, Hollande had announced his intentions to create a “buffer” zone and a “no-fly” zone in SYRIA. At that time, however, his own foreign secretary threw cold water on his plans by announcing that such zones could only be created by a decision of the UN Security Council. And the position of the UN Security Council is clear – RUSSIA and CHINA will not give the go ahead for yet more ventures like the ones that have already ruined LIBYA. Knowing this, however, Hollande is trying to raise the morale of the terrorists operating within SYRIA. In order to do this, he is promising to create a “no-fly zone” – the relentless bombardment of SYRIA, in other words – and this is the one thing that the terrorists want. They are putting themselves at risk every time they place an improvised explosive device near a school, a hospital, a shopping center, a mosque. Obviously they want to get support from the air so that they no longer have to risk their lives.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pcUQ5ZasV7U9Utvi8Mn_gRDWXTJAHzhRQqec1ToI3ICQUUKquYivxz1uIJHrI5SauMXL_qxTLhyJitVU_diUQtV2AGCm5ZvtS50SR0eBuVJTEbON-Pga82z2SEXhQO47Rcem2peMPerU/s1600/gal_5652.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pcUQ5ZasV7U9Utvi8Mn_gRDWXTJAHzhRQqec1ToI3ICQUUKquYivxz1uIJHrI5SauMXL_qxTLhyJitVU_diUQtV2AGCm5ZvtS50SR0eBuVJTEbON-Pga82z2SEXhQO47Rcem2peMPerU/s320/gal_5652.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While the SYRIAN government and the SYRIAN people are placing monuments in <span style="font-size: large;">honor</span> of their heroes, the so-called “opposition members” are collaborating with the neocolonialists, making much of the colonialists’ flags while killing soldiers and civilians. <b>FRANCE <span style="font-size: large;">recognizes</span> these murderers and terrorists as “legitimate representatives of the SYRIAN people”</b>. The only question is whether “representatives” like these are what the SYRIAN people really need.</span></span> </div>

FRANCES "COLONIAL AMBITIONS" IN SYRIA

French Syrian Mandate Flag   FRENCH COLONIZERS HAVE NOT ACCEPTED THE LOSS OF THEIR COLONY By Elena Gromova   History stutters: the new lead...

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