Medicine, health care, and the entire gamut relating to the art of curing illnesses and diseases abetted firstly by appropriate diagnosis, and followed by an appropriate treatment regimen, embeds its roots from Vedic knowledge in the field of providing natural medication and has progressed on to part-specific specialists and surgeons, in this day and age.
The single most use of advancements in medical software, banks on the premise of allowing a global repository of records, to track the entire genesis and history relating to an individual, from birth to death, even if treated by various medical practitioners, hospitals or the like. This channel of a customized management system with an authorized data entry system would provide a unilateral approach and a common substrate for all practitioners to work upon.
Various strata of development, in line with a seamless structure, would include the following:
1) Decoding the Genes: With DNA foot-printing becoming common place, it is logical to have a global biometric database of a person’s genetic code, along with its characteristic pattern, its logical anomalies, its high points and low points so that a medical practitioner can readily, just by studying / looking at this report, formulate a treatment pattern, in accurate accordance, and in a customized format. This set includes 10845 patents, across the globe. Result Set for Query: ((gene OR DNA OR genet*) TI) AND ((decod* OR cod*) TI) AND NOT ((database) AB) AND NOT ((gener*) AB) 2) Database building: The idea is to have a repository on a global platform, and having a sharing platform accessible through the Internet, mobile phones, PDAs, and the like, from a remote location. A virtual warehouse would file and store all medical history, chronologically. Typically, this could start from the first vaccines taken to ailments suffered to diagnosis methodology to tests performed along with report to treatments taken. Thus, the nature and cause of the ailment specifically in relation to a patient is visually available from any location. Hampering / mismanagement of patient health, may thus reduce, since it would be difficult for a medical practitioner to hide his / her competency, as all such treatment would need to be uploaded on the Internet. This set includes 1490 patents, across the globe. Result Set for Query: ((gene OR DNA OR genet*) AB) AND ((database) AB) 3) Remote Diagnosis and Treatment: With the entire story available from the Internet, any medical practitioner is qualified to diagnose and treat a patient remotely. The only hindrance would be the lack of active monitoring. This set includes 21496 patents, across the globe. Result Set for Query: ((remote OR telemetry OR distan*) AB) AND ((diagnosis OR treatment OR medical OR therap*) AB) 4) Evolution of Pattern: From records of online databases, a pattern analysis may be sought to study individual / mass population. This set includes 95 patents, across the globe. Result Set for Query: ((medical OR health OR healthcare) AB) AND ((database OR repository) AB) AND ((pattern) AB) 5) Automated Global monitoring: The repository may thus be available to any person from any node throughout the world. This set includes 632 patents, across the globe. Result Set for Query: ((medical OR health OR healthcare) AB) AND ((global OR distan*) AB) AND ((monitor*) AB) On an undefined trajectory, if a curve fitting algorithm were to be engaged to fit the past trend, the current trends, and the future trend, at the extreme extrapolated juncture tending to not as far as infinity, we may see ourselves at the origin, again. Thus, the circular life cycle which began at the point of providing natural health care via herbal medicines progressed on to synthetic drug care and is now again poised to reach the natural medication phase; only this time embellished with the armour of medical software for effective tracking, accurate diagnosis, and continuous monitoring. Also, health care and its future cannot be compartmentalized. Its fluidity with respect to borrowing support from advancements in the electronic and technical domain, as well as in the understanding of the micro-structures of human anatomy, and its interdependence, is a ubiquotous subject matter of research in today’s day and age.
Well, that’s what I thought when I received news about a movie as an e-mail from one of the IP blogs, I subscribed to. Nonplussed, till now, I never knew the affinity or hate (usually, extreme reactions) that the display of one’s profession on a medium causes.
So, Flash of a Genius, had me on grips almost immediately, its sole reason being the subject matter of the movie, which revolves around one man’s (Robert Kearns') invention which stemmed vis-à-vis his own need – the intermittent wiper system – in cars, and the US automobile industry which 'infringed' upon his invention. (The antagonists in this case, being Ford and Chrysler). So, goes the protagonist on his salvaging journey amidst the techno-legal framework and the burden of fighting it out against the tide. Undeterred and plausibly in Hollywood, melodramatic style, this movie aims to woo the audience showcasing the victory and turmoil of this lone man (as pitched against the stalwarts).
Interestingly, intermittent wipers came about after Robert Kearns was hit in his left eye by a champagne cork on his wedding night in 1953. Later, Kearns was driving his Ford Galaxie through a light rain, and the constant movement of the wiper blades irritated his already troubled vision. He modeled his mechanism on the human eye, which automatically blinks every few seconds.
Kearns invented and patented the intermittent windshield wiper mechanism for use in light rain or mist and tried to license it to the big automakers. They all rejected his idea and then some went ahead and put intermittent wipers in their cars beginning in 1969. In 1967, he received the first of more than 30 patents for his wipers. He sued Ford in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982 for patent infringement.
Ford argued that Kearns’ patents were overly broad and therefore invalid. In 1990, a jury decided that Ford infringed on Kearns’ patent, though it concluded the infringement was not deliberate. Ford had contended the patent was invalid because the windshield system contained no new concepts. But Kearns argued a new combination of parts made his invention unique.
That jury failed to reach agreement on how much he should be awarded, and another jury later ordered Ford to pay Kearns $6.3 million, trimmed by a judge to $5.2 million. To settle the case, Ford agreed to pay $10.2 million and to drop all appeals. Chrysler ended up paying Kearns $18.7 million plus interest.
Interesting to read are the following Robert Kearns patents:
Amidst the scriptwriters' on-going hunt for ubiquitous-ly laudable subject matters, it would be interesting to see the portrayal of the patent system on a motion medium. A neat way to drive home the point about the need for the system and its intricacies, too, albeit Hollywood style!
• Patent Agent
• Founder and Trustee (At GrassRoots – NGO)
Education:
- MSc. Bioengineering (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK)
- PG Diploma in Bioinformatics(Bioinformatics Institute of India)
- B.E. in Electronics (Mumbai University, India)
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