Challenges which cannot be overcome

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We encounter situations which we feel that it cannot be overcome in any way. We are struck and nothing can be done. One thinking is that this is never the case. All situations can be overcome and all it requires is applying our learnings and experiences. At the precise moment, what we need is the ability to think and how we can think different.
In 2009, US Airways flight 1549 was hit by goose while taking off and the pilot’s had nowhere to go over the skies of the densely populated New York City. Captain Sullenberger III maintained his calm and guided the flight to safely land on the Hudson river. This is not the first time an airplane is landing on water, but this is the first time everyone survived the landing.
What is different? In all situations where a flight landed on water, pilots followed the same checklists. Why did other situations fail and this was a success?
Pilot Captain Sullenberger III not only followed the checklist but ensured he was calm and focusing on the task at hand – to land the plane. Since he lost both the engines, his capability of flying back to Newark or any other runway was out of option. When he had no other options, he focused on the available option. Utilized all his skills and brought the plan down in water in the best way possible.
There is no challenge which cannot be overcome, it is the thought of how you can manage the situation and focusing on what is available is what makes the different.

Competitive Spirit

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I couldn’t help but admire the advertisement from Mercedes celebrating 100 years of BMW.

Merc

This is the power of competitive spirit. Mercedes in this advertisement is playfully complimenting BMW for their competition and also criticizing that they did not bring out any innovative products in the last 30 years.
Complementing competition is something which will flourish. Accepting and acknowledging the presence of our competition is which will allow us to do better. Identifying competitor strategies, decoding their innovation is what helps any business co-exist and also make a mark in the world.
What we experience in the real world is also same. Only when there is competition and co-existence there is Innovation. Only when there is Innovation is betterment of the society.

Revisiting Expectations

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All of us have expectations. Be it at home, work, with friends and family. Everywhere and every time.
The most important aspect of expectations is that it becomes the root cause of our disappointments.
So, should I not have expectations? You should. We should. All of us should have expectations. But, these expectations should come with the reality. The reality of realizing the expectations. What is happening is that as times change, our efforts come with an automatic interest of expectations. I have done this, so, I should get this. I put in these efforts in my relationships, and I should get this in return. Honestly, life does not run this way. Even though we have not learnt this formally, it became part of our lives.
So, what can I expect? Expect to enjoy the beauty of life. Expect that the world is waiting for your deliver your duties. Expect that there are no returns for anything for which you do. Expect no one is thinking about you.
You need to set expectations based on what you agree with. When you set these expectations for yourself, you start to be living a life. Your life becomes happier and the world around is more happier.
People say the world has changed, it has become a cruel place etc. But, the world has not changed. It has remained the way for millions of years and it will continue to be so. What has changed is the way we think and act. The moment this is taken care, everything falls into place.
Whatever you do, do it with Passion and what has to come back will come back.

Dosha Vs Personalized Medicine

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I shared my thoughts on Personalized Medicine being the future of medicine earlier. Recently, I saw a TEDx Talk by Dr. Russ Altman on the topic of Personalized Prescription.

What Dr. Russ talks about is how medications works differently on various kinds of bodies and he uses examples to demonstrate how Codin works on different people. For few, it works like a magic and for few others, it does not help at all.

Our body is made of molecules and medicines are a combination of various elements working with these molecules to bring down the pain which our body is going through.

Now, let us look at the Dosha’s in our body as described in Ayurveda. The human body is categorized into 3 Dosha’s (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha). Ayurveda is the science of handling ailments based on the body type and customized treatment.

I am looking at comparing and contrasting as to what Dr. Russ is saying and what we already have in India.

A combination of Personalized Prescription and Ayurveda is something which will benefit the human kind.

What can we do next?

Blackbox Thinking

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Every flight is equipped with a Blackbox, which records all the conversations in the Cockpit and each and every instruction given to the plane. There is no debate on how this is helpful to track how the plane has been operational.

Our brain is our blackbox and it records each and every instance of our life, making us what we are and how we behave and handle our thought process. What if we decode our brain from time to time and look at how it has been processing our experiences?

Many a times, our mind takes over our thoughts. It clubs our emotions to our feelings and gives out instructions on how we react to situations. Only few of us can actually note these reactions and understand the instructions from the brain and then take action. This comes out of practice. The practice of thinking and practice of handling instructions from brain and mind.

When it is a good news or success, we celebrate. But, when there is failure, we allow our mind to rule over and react according to what it feels. Success comes from managing this reaction. This is the reason successful people become successful. They look at their failures and downtimes, practice thinking and understand the reactions from the brain and then take action.

So, the next time you experience failure, evaluate what your feelings are and act according to what the brain says. This will give you the required result rather than a

Creating an Experience

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Creating Experience in Healthcare is focusing on building personal relationships with clients. How do we incorporate the personal connections into technology?

When you enter any showroom or inquire for a house or participate in any event, they collect your personal details and then based on the assessment of the sales person, they categorize you for what kind of potential client you are. Based on which category you fall into, the system will keep reminding the sales person for timely follow up’s with you for a potential sale.

In a similar way, incorporating the patient experience based on what category they fall into (Inpatient/ Outpatient / kind of treatment they come to the hospital etc.) can help the administration provide the experience. Over the period of time, providing experience becomes a habit.

In their book Patient Comes Second authors Paul Spiegelman and Britt Berrett highlight how Healthcare organizations are developing the habit of cultivating experience in various places across America.

In countries like India, where we have challenges for various reasons, along with building a culture of experience, technology should also help to cultivate the habit in the workforce by incorporating experience into the workflow.

What do you think?

Experience – Future of Healthcare

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There are more than 50,000 apps which track your health on a mobile phone today. There are numerous wearables which track various vital statistics of the human body. There are good number of companies which are helping address various aliments through technology.
There are pure Healthcare technology companies which are removing paper from Hospitals by building software to improve efficiencies.
One aspect organizations and startup’s should focus on is providing experience.
Experience changes everything. The one experience which makes things happen is the feeling of good and satisfaction. Healthcare is is a very important industry which today by any metric lacks in satisfaction levels. Hospitals focus too much on either financials or turn around time or efficiencies or quantity of services provided. Most of the times, the patient experience is either missed or ignored.
Experience is something what we need to focus on. Experience in care, experience in treatment and experience in the way Hospitals interact with their clients.
The feel good experience is what changes the way Health care is viewed and delivered.

Checklist thinking

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Thinking is an art. Winston Churchill once said “Most people think once a year, I practiced to think twice a week and that is why I am here”. So, what is so different and difficult in thinking?
Thinking is simple, but yet very complicated. If we just read what Churchill said, we can understand that there is something more to thinking what we do each day. All of us think, each day, each minute and each second. We are thinking of various things and we are thinking on how to solve problems. We stop at thinking when we find an appropriate solutions, not necessarily the right solution. Many a times we restrict our thinking because we are given a checklist to think.
If you look at a developer, he starts coding when he receives Low Level Design and Algorithm. He will understand the problem, LLD and the Algorithm, but we does not understand is how to solve the problem. He has the blue print of the solution and his thinking is mostly towards writing code, based on the design and algorithm. What is wrong with this?
Limited thinking. That is the key here. Fortunately or unfortunately many of us are in this mode. We receive instructions and immediately our thinking stops. We follow the instructions. It is good and many a times it is encouraged to follow the laid out plan, but it is also very important to practice thinking and solving the problem. In aviation, the Pilot has a series of checklists for any kind, for flying the airplane. There is a checklist for starting the engine, taxing to the runway, takeoff, causing, depending, landing and parking the aircraft. Is the pilot not thinking then? He thinks. They are trained to think in simulations. Even though they follow the checklists, it is left to the pilots discretion as to how to handle the situation. This is checklist thinking.
Even though we have set guidelines to perform any tasks, what we need to practice is how to effectively solve the problem/address the situation following the checklist.

Reading between lines

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When did you hear this last? Today? Am sure you did. “You should read between the lines” is what you get to hear when you are being rejected or something is not working the way you want it to work. Is it really worth reading between the lines?
To understand the line reading between the lines, you will need to first understand why you are being rejected and then start understanding the person or the group you rejected you.
To understand why you are being rejected might not take long. For example, you applied for a position outside your skill set area and the company did not select you for the job, it is very simple to understand that you did not fit into the role. But, if you check marked all the requirements (and you fit into all) and then got rejected, then there is a little thinking which needs to be done. You will need to evaluate what went missing (either your resume did not exactly speak what you wish to communicate or you could not articulate your experience well enough). It is very important.
When I applied for my masters program, the first time my application got rejected. I did not understand why because I was meeting their criteria. The second time too, my application was rejected. This time, I walked in to the Institute to understand what is happening. The admissions office explained that they are categorizing applications based on Industry background (they do not mention this publicly). The first time they picked applicants with Finance background, the second time they were looking at Investment Banking background. I could have lost hope and left it there. But, knowing the situation helped me better understand as to why I am being rejected. Talking to the admissions office gave me clarity. So, the next time I applied I checked with them and then did.
Reading between the lines is important, but either you have to understand what is not connecting properly or the background of the person who is rejecting you. Only then it helps.

Anatomy of Healthcare Startup’s

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Healthcare startup’s have raised close to $10 Billion worldwide in 2015 and the numbers are only increasing.
What is interesting is apart from the e-Commerce, finding Doctors and Networking for Doctors, today’s startup’s are addressing almost all parts of the human body re-defining the way we live.
What components of the Human Body are startup’s addressing? 
 
Brain
Autoimmune
Lungs
Liver
Blood
Heart
Gastrointestinal
Kidney
How is it each of the components are being looked at by technologists? We will go deeper into them soon.