Re: [DIYbio] Fwd: An intriguing example of working, medical DIYBio

> An intriguing example of DIYBio,

Given that he's only taken over a med-tech/nurse job for himself, and
isn't doing any actual biology, the distinction "DIYmed" makes more
sense here.

> ... as a necessity to stay alive without
> bankrupting oneself. Here a man built his own kidney dialysis machine at a
> fraction of the cost of what was available commercially, using common
> kitchen tools.

Not quite that simple. Nor, at about $25 per treatment, so cheap, at
least by Chinese standards.

> Although this is an early example, it shows the potential for low-cost
> innovation, as medical consumers evolve into creators and makers, mastering
> their own fates, rather than rely helplessly on the mainstream experts.

Medical economics is strange, and can dramatically distort the markets
of services like dialysis, which costs about $77K per patient year in
the U.S., with about 1 patient in 10 dying anyway, annually. Who knows
how much of that $77K goes to malpractice insurance premiums?

So I can almost see it: between cutting a few corners, not relying on
some supposedly risk-reducing (and expensive) injections, not having
to pay malpractice insurance on his own work, while benefiting (except
in purchasing power terms) from generally lower costs in China, it's
possible this guy has given the world a huge breakthrough.

Possible. But likely? Applying Occam's Razor, I get another couple of
possibilities:

(1) He'd was MISdiagnosed with total renal failure, and has failed to
kill himself with amateur treatment for a condition he actually
doesn't have.

(2) He's a plucky (but not very ethical) entrepreneur, hoping to sell
millions of DIYalysis kits before the authorities take much notice, on
the strength of "See? I'm drinking my own Koolade!" pitch plus a lot
of free publicity from overcredulous Chinese journalists.

> Interestingly, it will be in the less-developed parts of the world where
> DIYBio may find many of its early adopters and creators, both out of need,
> and also because of lack of existing infrastructure (like healthcare,
> environmental standards, good governance). Just as Mobile Banking was
> pioneered by africans because of a lack of financial infrastructure,

Mobile payments through banks is not something invented in Africa.
It's wildly popular there because cellphone penetration in Africa has
(as Bryan points out) leapfrogged almost all of the many
infrastructural and institutional obstacles to more conventional
banking and payment systems. But leapfrogging from a backward position
can still leave you a little backward.

Somalia has you-can-hear-a-pin-drop cellphone service, perhaps the
highest quality in all of Africa. But it's found in cities of hundreds
of thousands of people where, somehow, they all need to share a single
x-ray machine at a single clinic. So I wouldn't pin my hopes on DIYmed
taking off in a big way in Africa just because a particular class of
telecom has. Not all technology is created alike.

> ... Africa now is several generations ahead of us in terms of
> mobile technologies,

SEVERAL generations? They have VR projectors in their cellphones?

> and has developed itself to export its systems and
> know-how to the world.

Examples, please? There's a lot of breathless hype on this subject. For example:

"According to California-based mobile-banking innovator Carol Realini,
executive chairman of Obopay: "Africa is the Silicon Valley of
banking. The future of banking is being defined here… It's going to
change the world.""

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming

If that's true, Ms. Realini, what the hell are you still doing in
California? Your MARKET may be in Africa. But where are your
developers?

I know that the cellphones, the base stations and the switching
equipment are not developed (or even manufactured) in Africa. The
mobile banking software, however? Software development is growing in
Africa. I keep track of this through a mailing list and a couple of
Google news alerts. And that's a very good thing. But it wouldn't
surprise me at all to learn that the Silicon Valley of African mobile
banking software is actually ... Silicon Valley.

Regards,
Michael Turner
Project Persephone
1-25-33 Takadanobaba
Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 169-0075
(+81) 90-5203-8682
turner@projectpersephone.org
http://www.projectpersephone.org/

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward
together in the same direction." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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