Ask HN: Seeking advice for the next steps of a health care side project
Dear HNers, I am asking your advice for the next strategic steps about a half finished side project in health care.
Once a company asked for ideas about a COPD and Heart Failure early detector. I submitted my idea (based on Physionet 2016 competition), but the company then asked for a proof of concept. I had none, so I decided to make my own and make it public. I would be happy if it would be copied widely.
https://hackaday.io/project/19685-early-and-low-cost-detection-of-heart-failure
The PoC was developped in Java, uses ML and works well enough for me. I have a clear idea how to extend it to detect fibrous tissues in the heart and possibly in lungs. I have confidence that I can develop this, all by myself in the C language, embed it in a self contained $150 device and market it.
However several things worry me:
* Having a health detector is nice but is the information really useful?
* How to get a market authorization with little resources?
* What strategies about next steps, in particular I am thinking about a much more ambitious detector. Some guys, inspired by the Star Trek Tricorder and Qualcomm prize, already had wonderful ideas.
* A comfortable possibility would be to integrate an existing organization (I worked for 35 years in a large company).
Thanks for any suggestion.
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I've worked a bit on ECG signals (Physionet, too). You may want to take a look at:
- "Baseline Correction with Asymmetric Least Squares Smoothing" by Paul H. C. Eilers and Hans F.M. Boelens[0]. They used it for chromatography and spectroscopy but I've had great results applying that to detect and remove the baseline from ECG. The article provides 11 lines of MATLAB code to illustrate.
- Savitzky-Golay filter: For smoothing. I liked it for some of the noisy signals.
- Poincaré plot for RR intervals.
[0]: https://zanran_storage.s3.amazonaws.com/www.science.uva.nl/ContentPages/443199618.pdf
Did the company that inspired you suddenly stop being interested in you, even if you had a proof of concept?
The profit motive means technology works as follows, particularly in health care: if you can build it and corner a healthy market, shut up and take my money. If you want to give it away or sell it as a loss, please leave a message at the beep.
Don't worry about building in all kinds of bells and whistles. Sounds like what little you have is more than good enough- call that company back and stop acting so profligate with the IP if you want them to throw the marketing and compliance resources at a project that desperately needs them.
I've known a few people go through this. One product was something that detected when someone hasn't moved in bed for a period of time. This can be used to prevent bedsores.
They found the regulatory environment absolutely crippling. After banging their head against the wall too long, they eventually gave up.
I'd say going with an experienced incubator/mentor/etc in this space would be a great idea. https://rockhealth.com/ is one good example. They can give you access to health care companies, networks, mentors, etc.
I have a friend who's been working on a healthcare-related startup (smart baby mat). When I used to help out, I remember it being quite complex as he's gone to hospitals to help him perform some clinical trials before going to market. If you'd like, I can put you in touch with him.
Hi, I have a lot of commercialization background in this space - this is me - http://linkedin.com/in/somid3/ - shoot me a msg at somid3 at google's email service dot com