Healthcare Reform Should Launch Our Next Global “Space Race”

I wasn’t even born until 11 years afterwards, but I grew up fully aware of the launch of Sputnik I in 1957, the dog “Laika” sent up by the USSR the next year, and the whole “space race” between the Americans and the Russians. Those historical moments gave us a global–even galactic–perspective and a global competition for innovation. Yes, for many people, it was tinged with an element of fear and potential military catastrophe. But for me as a child through to this very day, it captured my imagination and felt like a collective sense of purpose for where America should be headed. It was that generation’s manifest destiny to own the skies, and it generated enormous advances in other fields and industries as a side effect of focusing on those grand challenges.

 

As we are bogged down in this healthcare reform debate (and for those of you who missed the intended parody of my last blog post, I want to assure you that, while tired of the silly headlines and partisan posturing, I am okay and that it was meant entirely as a humorous critique of our healthcare paradigm!), it occurs to me that the President and Congress have missed an enormous opportunity to show how healthcare reform–what we really ought to call “healthcare innovation” instead–could and should be the context for the equivalent of our next global space race. 

 

We should be taking a global, competitive perspective towards healthcare reform, realizing that some country is going to develop new infrastructure and industries to deliver care in fundamentally new ways for our swiftly aging planet. Some nation will see this global age wave not only as an economic threat but as an opportunity to generate new technologies, services, and jobs to deliver personal healthcare. Back in the year 2000, there were 600 million people over the age of 60 on our planet. By 2025, in just fifteen more years, the World Health Organization says there will be 1.2 billion…with more than 2 billion by the mid century point. This demographic horizon is where we should be aiming. The United States ought to be at the forefront of innovation to meet the needs of this global age wave.

 

How do we pay for the uninsured and our voracious healthcare appetite in America? One answer would be to become a global leader of delivering new healthcare services and technologies not only here at home but also to many other parts of the world. Someone is going to use the advances of the Internet, genetic testing, personalized medicine, home diagnostics, health coaching and disease management software, and social networking sites to deliver care differently. Some country is going to tap into the “Boomer Phenomena” to foster and ride a cultural movement of consumer empowerment, self-care, personal responsibility, and patient proactivity with new services that allow people to pilot their own bodies and healthcare experiences from their own homes, laptops, cell phones, and personal health records. The question is: are we in the United States prepared to compete in this global race to deliver personal health care to the planet?

 

I get to spend some time in Europe when visiting our Technology Research for Independent Living, or TRIL Centre, in Dublin, Ireland (check out www.trilcentre.org). My friends and colleagues there tell me that the European Union is investing with clear intent to develop a 21st century healthcare services infrastructure for themselves (they are ahead of us on the age wave curve so already need advances in aging-in-place and disease management technologies) and for other countries. They have invested more than one billion Euros in independent living technology research. They have made home and community based care an international priority. They are exploring the trans-national licensure of doctors and nurses who could then deliver care to their patients virtually or in locations across Europe. They are in the early stages of training and credentialing new kinds of home care and other “care concierge” workers. They are investing in broadband and other computing infrastructure to the home–even in rural areas–to help people be “e-citizens,” which very much includes getting health care at home. So perhaps the United States is already well behind in the “space race” to innovate for global aging?

 

As the President addresses Congress and the nation next week on healthcare reform, I hope he brings his innovation message forward.  He has reinvested in science and technology research and education. He has hired the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer. He has invested in health information technologies and electronic health records as infrastructure for healthcare reform. He has shown how innovation to meet the needs of Global Warming can generate new jobs and industries across America. Now he needs to show how the same results can come from a focus on Global Aging.

 

Mr. President, let Wednesday’s speech be your call for a Sputnik launch for healthcare reform…start the next space race…throw down the innovation gauntlet to the American people to make healthcare reform not only a means of healing our sick care system but also a means of generating new jobs, new kinds of healthcare jobs, new technologies, and new services for providing care which could extend globally. Show the American people and the rest of the world that healthcare innovation–for a global marketplace–can be a stimulus to our economy. Let us begin the race that others have already started. It is our generation’s challenge to own the future of healthcare–the largest segment of the economy in almost every nation on the planet. Healthcare reform and policies in Washington D.C. should focus on helping us to compete fairly, vigorously, and internationally…and to win.

 

Comments (0)

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IntelBlogs/~3/r5aDV5aSqgo/healthcare_reform_should_launch_our_next_global_space_race.php

Inside a ��Compliance and Interoperability�� Workshop

Do you read the comic strip ��Dilbert��? If so, you know what a work environment based on cubicles looks like. Many of us involved with the Server System Infrastructure (SSI) Forum just finished our first ��compliance and interoperability�� (C&I) workshop and, interestingly, cubicles played a key role.

Cubicles are a useful compromise between noise, openness, ease of access and other factors. However, one thing a cubicle is not, is private. Why is that relevant to a C&I event? Let me explain.

��Compliance�� refers to the conformance of a physical device, say a computer or plug-in card, to a written specification. ��Interoperability�� refers to the ability of the physical device to connect with other devices and perform according to predetermined tests.

A C&I workshop has elements of testing for specifications and for tests of devices connected together. Depending on the devices under test, testing can be extremely complex process, often involving entirely new-to-the-world components. In fact, multiple entirely new components can be connected together, based on untested specs and using the latest generation of test equipment.

Participating company��s most talented engineers work to get their components proven compliant and interoperable. That��s where secrecy comes in: engineers have to be able to work without being concerned about prying eyes.

Privacy is also essential for the tests themselves. Early results may not be positive, but those early results could be damaging to a company��s reputation, so they are correctly kept confidential.

How is this privacy achieved? The first C&I workshop was held at an Intel facility. At the lab there are cubicles, per the Intel norm. However, the larger than usual cubicles featured translucent fiberglass panels bolted to the cubicle walls. Also, a sliding lockable door was added to each cubicle.

During the three-day workshop, much was accomplished. Engineers from across the US, Israel and China, representing several blade components, were able to connect their devices together. There were two basic blade systems, one developed by Intel and one by a system OEM. They were developed independently and in parallel, but both were based on specifications provided by SSI.

SSI develops and promotes open specifications for blades and for chassis and power supplies for servers. It currently has almost 40 member companies around the world. SSI has produced 6 blade specs, currently in draft form, to be finalized by the time of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), September 22-24. SSI has also made 3 switch specs from IBM BladeCenter available to SSI members.

There are two focus areas for specification in the ��traditional�� server area of SSI, one for electronics bays (chassis) and one for power supplies �V with over 40 specs released since the inception of SSI. Current specs are always available on the SSI web site, and specs now in development for the next CPU generation will be available for prerelease access.

<![CDATA[The C&I Workshop is an important first step on a long journey. Workshops will be held at independent test organizations, purpose-built for such activities. Workshops will expand in scope and participation, as we deliver on the promise of interoperability; really the central tenet of SSI.]]>

See you at IDF! Please come to my session, EMTS006, ��SSI Interoperability Delivered: How Server System Infrastructure (SSI) Specifications Provides Interoperable Components��, September 24, at 2:40. I suggest you attend my colleague, Steve Krig��s, lab ECTL001, ��Lab: SSI Server System Infrastructure �V Industry Open Blades Standards Compliance and Interoperability��, September 23, at 2:05 and 4:15, for a more technical description of C&I tools and methodologies. I also suggest you visit our booth to see our interoperability demo at booth number 520.

Jim Ryan, Chairman, SSI

Making of Core i7 — What’s Next?

Nehalem played a big role during IDF 2008. Many new details were introduced during keynotes and in briefings, including features built into the microarchitecture like Turbo Mode, which allow the cores to dynamically scale up to handle demanding needs like video encoding or scale down to use just enough of a core to finish a simple task like typing.

Just after IDF 2008 in San Francisco, we visited some of the engineers who played a role in the making of the Intel Core i7 processor. This video was create just as the first Nehalem designed processors for consumers were about to hit the market. We visited design and testing labs in Hillsboro, Oregon and Santa Clara, California.

As we get closer to IDF 2009 in San Francsico, we��ll be visiting with manufacturing, design and test engineers working away on what��s next�Kcodename Westmere.

Where Nehalem was new chip archeticture design, Westmere is the next design being used to build processors that feature two 32nm cores with 4MB of cache that sit next to a memory controller and integrated graphics built on a separate, neighboring 45nm chip, all in one package. Westmeres will be the basis of upcoming all new Core chips (Core i3, i5, and 7) over the next few months.

Westmere processors will share some of the same features that were built into Nehalem, including Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost (descirbed above).

Some Westmeres will feature HyperThreading will allow each core to handle two threads �X or process two jobs at once.

As we work on the ��Making of�� Westmere video prior to IDF, here is a video I shot with Intel��s Steve Smith, as he prepared for the first public demonstation of a Westmere-designed chip earlier this year.

If you��d like to follow the integration and innovation stories leading up to, during and after the Intel Developer Forum (September 22-24 in San Francisco), please follow:

• Facebook Fan Page
• @IDF Twitter
• @IntelNews on Twitter
• And during the event, news will be available in the Intel Pressroom

Comments (0)

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IntelBlogs/~3/kkytO63c0RE/making_of_core_i7_–_whats_nex.php