Walter De Brouwer is a serial entrepreneur who created his startup Scanadu to give people the ability to use their smartphone as a diagnostic device for medical purposes. De Brouwer actually began work on the idea over a decade ago when he was looking to develop a device that would be similar to the Star Trek tricoder. At the time, the technology available was not sufficient to make the idea feasible, however today the technology and knowledge exists to make Scanadu a disruptive new idea that may change the health care industry.
De Brouwer claims that he has worked in seven different careers and worked on starting 38 companies in the past 30 years. His latest position as CEO of Scanadu came from a very personal event. His six year old son suffered a traumatic accident that left him in a coma. De Brouwer spent all his time at the hospital and states that, “My wife and I were both in shock. You start to realize that although you are well educated, in health care you don’t know anything.”
To get more information on their son’s health, the couple would research the equipment being used in the ICU. This helped them keep track of their son’s progress and also helped in communicating with the doctor. After De Brouwer’s son came out of the coma and was on the slow road to recovery, his father started up Scanadu. The startup wants to create a solution that stays with the patient on their smartphone and can scan, track, and share information like body temperature, blood pressure, and lung function. All this is done without the device touching the patient’s body. This information will then be sent to doctors for a better diagnosis or to be shared with other patients or doctors.
Sharing such private information seems hard to imagine, but De Brouwer believes that people will get used to tracking their health and will not feel uncomfortable sharing the data with others. His sees this as a way for patients and doctors to create “empathy networks” using his technology. The device is expected to be on the market by the end of 2013.
For right now, the 55 year old De Brouwer has moved to Silicon Valley to make his idea into reality. He is working with a young team that wants to develop the disruptive technology. He says that, “Young people are so great, you can start them with completely disruptive ideas. When I started thinking about this tricorder, I told my team of young PhDs that we were going to put the complete diagnostic experience of a major clinic in a smartphone. They said ‘OK,’. If I were to tell a group from Siemens the same thing they would tell me to go to a psychologist.”
De Brouwer also believes his idea will change the industry because he has an outsider’s prespective. He says that, “They’ve been trying for years to change health care, but they are trying with doctors.” He predicts that eventually the practice of medicine will become an information science. The end goal is to give information to people that do not have it so that they understand exactly what is going on with their health. If he can do that then he will have succeeded in his venture.
Source: Fast Company
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