Lesson 6

This Lesson focused on the theme:

1) The BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences (Past, Present, Future)

Inspirational

We started the lesson with an inspiring quote by Albert Einstein:

"There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle"

This quote is inspirational as it applies to both a world outlook on life as well as a technological outlook. In terms of the world it refers to how we can see life as either "half full" or "half empty". So, we either appreciate everything we see in our lives or we be negative and are anti everything we see. In relation to technology, this kind of attitude of seeing everything as a miracle can lead to new innovations. People who see the world positively are more likely to succeed and create important new innovations. I found this quote particularly interesting as it helps us understand the type of attitude that can benefit our futures as well as contribute to the world around us.

The Healthcare Revolution

The healthcare revolution is particularly interesting as it has benefitted our world immensely. Before our countries were affected by common diseases such as the cold but, now, as we get more and more industrialized we are affected by what seems to be "man-made" diseases. I find this fascinating as it seems that in our developed and developing countries people face problems such as obesity and heart attacks because of the way we have developed. What I mean by this is that with the introduction of fast food restaurants and transportation that requires less exercise people are more prone to "man-made" diseases. I thought this makes us question the reality of the affect of technology (or rather the way we choose to use technology). Personally, I believe that technology has benefitted our world greatly as now we have information at our fingertips. However, the way we use technology is sometimes wrong where we replace our basic needs with unhealthy alternatives (like food and exercise). Hence, I think if utilized correctly can benefit us immensely and these "man-made" diseases won't be a big problem.

Another important thing to note about the Healthcare Revolution is that third world countries, such as Africa, are still struggling with diseases that are easily taken care of in other countries. This shows the unequal distribution of told in our world as things that could be dealt with a simple vaccine at birth are not available to these third world countries. This results in early deaths and hard lives for these people.

The Video

Another aspect of class that made me think was the video of Microsoft's view on healthcare. The video showed what kinds of technologies could be available in healthcare. I thought this was good as the video depicted a world where certain mundane jobs would become obsolete and, thus, this would lead to an overall cheaper means of getting medicines and consultations for doctors. This is good as more people will be able to get treated. However, we must consider the other side of the coin where many people are displaced from there jobs. Even though this is appears to be a large problem I believe that with new things being introduced there will be new jobs on the market as well.

Presentation - Organ Transplants & Donors

One of the individual oral presentations in our class focused on organ transplants and organ donors. I thought this showed the affect of BioBusiness' pretty clearly. This shows how healthcare can be related heavily to business. People are selling organs because of the high demand for them. However, often these organs come from third world countries and the people "donating" them are forced into it. This illustrates the business aspect as well as the extent people will go for the money. I found it to be an interesting topic as it was an example of how far people will go to get money as some of these individuals willingly sell there organs while others threaten random people to give up there organs (e.g. via gunpoint).

Conclusion

The class was good in the sense we talked about things impacting our world now and the importance of technology in relation to them. I found the video particularly interesting as well as a number of the individual oral presentations.

Rating: 9/10