|
|
Monitoring what happens to the body has become a craze in Silicon Valley, California. Many enthusiasts wear up to two or three cuffs to have strict control of their blood pressure 24 hours a day. These devices use sensors that count the number of steps the user has taken (the recommended rate is 10,000 per day, that is, eight kilometers). Across the California Valley, startups are rushing to take advantage of the euphoria around this technology. They are adapting devices to measure body functions to smartphones, in order to produce a stream of data that may or may not be useful to doctors and specialists if they have time to process it. There are already dozens of start-ups, perhaps hundreds. This is possible because more people than ever before are hyperconnected to the internet, all the time, as if in “always on” mode. After liking or friending someone on social media, you can now add your own body to the digital experience. Billionaire In a corner of the Stanford University campus where Facebook once had offices, Elizabeth Holmes works on a health monitoring project that has kept her busy for the past eleven years. His company, , is the antithesis of the new “gold rush” in the health sector, although it is not disconnected from it. Holmes is only 31 years old, but she has been driving her business since she was in her twenties.
She has only now come to light and become known. According to Forbes magazine, with a fortune of US$4.5 billion, Holmes is the richest young entrepreneur on the planet. This young America Mobile Number List woman is very clear about what she wants. The confidence that she shows in her goals is one of the main characteristics of Silicon Valley. He dresses in black like the late Steve Jobs of Apple did. Like him, Holmes has so much faith in herself that she generates a kind of magnetic field. And apparently he has had that influence since he was 19, when he abandoned his engineering studies at Stanford University to found his own firm. has until now been an unknown company, but private investors have bought shares and made its value rise to no less than US$9 billion. has attracted renowned “believers.” His company has one of the most famous boards of directors in the United States, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, as well as a former Secretary of Defense. has a clear and direct goal: to make blood tests simpler, available at all times and cheaper, as well as not being “alarming”.
Holmes is convinced that she faces an enormous challenge: “From the beginning I asked myself what I could do to change the world.” And completes: “Influencing people's lives in a meaningful way.” Photo: Millennium Photo: Millennium Cost A large number of medical diagnoses are based on blood tests. In the United States alone, billions of tests are performed each year, at a cost - also - of billions of dollars. But many people consider them expensive and invasive. There is a general fear of needles. Holmes says that as a result, about half of people don't get the tests their doctors order. has a price list that includes more than 200 types of blood tests. The amount is charged in advance. The tests are much cheaper than those from established companies, which generally send the bill after taking them. The tests use much smaller blood samples, a little more than a drop. And then the blood is quickly analyzed at the firm's facilities: automated laboratories protected by trade secrecy. “We handled such a small amount of blood that we were forced to develop new chemical analysis systems for processing,” explains Holmes. Interesting, yes.
|
|
发表于 2024-3-10 12:14:45