4 min reading time

Maurizio Vecchione supports Bill Gates’ efforts to invent and deploy technologies specifically focused on improving life in developing countries.

He is the senior executive of Global Good, a collaboration between Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures to develop technology that addresses the problems of the poorest people on the planet.

Maurizio is presenting “Global Good: Devices for the Poorest” at the 10x Medical Device Conference in three weeks.

I asked him, “How can the Medical Devices Group help with your mission?”

And he told me about the kinds of inventions and projects they focus on. See http://medgroup.biz/globalgood-homepage

Paraphrasing here, Maurizio explained the poorest countries really have little money to buy life-saving medical devices. And when devices are donated with the best intentions, few hospitals or clinics have reliable power, support logistics, and the doctors or clinicians trained to use them. Appropriate devices for these environments don’t exist or aren’t made – because there’s little profit in them.

To be successful, the devices need to not only be less costly, but also reinvented so they can work in low resource settings.

This is where Bill Gates comes in.

At the 10x Medical Device Conference, Maurizio will ask for your help with the following:

• A ‘call to action’ to medical device developers to direct their talent towards devices that will help the world’s poorest people and significantly change the lives of millions, but have been generally neglected to date
• How our Group members (especially engineers) with a viable device concept can create and submit a one-page proposal like those shown at http://medgroup.biz/Global-Good in response to specific challenges
• How Global Good will provide feedback and potential next steps for each submission.

Intellectual Ventures’ Global Good makes no profit on its inventions that serve the developing world. If a device gets commercialized in the developed world, recovers development costs, and generates a profit, royalties may be available to share with the inventors. More likely is the satisfaction knowing your idea became a reality and saved countless lives.

You’re welcome to email me privately or ask questions in today’s comments.

So please see http://medgroup.biz/Global-Good and put your thinking caps on.

Wouldn’t it be great if some real good came of today’s conversation?

Here’s hoping, and thanks for reading.

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Meet Global Good’s Maurizio Vecchione at 10x

Recognizing how important outreach to the medical device engineering community is, Mr. Vecchione agreed to give a presentation on May 5 at the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley during the 10x Medical Device Conference.

See http://medgroup.biz/About-10x for information and to register.

It’s only three weeks away and the discounted hotel rate expires this Thursday. So if you’re interested, this is the last chance to get in at the lower rate.

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We had a strong response for the MDSAP webinar (April 28, 12:00 p.m. New York time) and you can still sign up. It’s free.

See http://medgroup.biz/mdsap to register for the free event.

The webinar will cover the impact of the Medical Device Single Audit Program on Medical Device Manufacturers selling into the USA, Canada, Brazil or Australia.

TÜV SÜD expert Edna Falkenberg will cover:
• Benefits of participating in the MDSAP pilot program
• How to satisfy multiple regulatory jurisdictions at once
• The MDSAP forms you’ll need
• How to prepare for MDSAP

See http://medgroup.biz/mdsap for the whole agenda.

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Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Medical Devices Group Leader

P.S. If you’re in the San Diego area, you can attend the 10x keynote and reception for under $100. See http://medgroup.biz/About-10x

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Cole Constantineau
Team Leader, Medical Devices at Helbling
The problem is, Intellectual Ventures is everything but ‘open source’. They fundamentally survive on attempting to restrict the use of technology.

Howard Adamsky
Director of Talent Aquisition at Destination Weddings Travel Group
Great idea.

Dr. Lukas Winter
Staff scientist at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) Berlin
I agree with Mr. Wang, one solution to “teach the man how to fish” and reduce “fishing costs” are high quality open source hardware medical devices.

Binseng Wang
Chair, ACCE International Committee
I wish Global Good and its partners the best of luck in solving the age-old challenge of bringing much needed health technology to the poorest countries. Having grown up in a poor (at the time) country and worked as a volunteer and consultant in many others, I have witness countless number of “white elephants” donated (either new or used) by well-meaning governments and NGOs and abandoned after only a few uses due to the lack of utilities, proper environment, supplies, and capable maintenance staff, etc.. This fact has been widely documented by international organizations such as the WHO. Besides addressing the long-standing lack of budget for recurrent operational and maintenance costs, there is also a perceptual challenge that is equally if nor more difficult to address. This is the rejection of “appropriate technology” by low-resource countries which believe they “deserve” to have the best, most sophisticated technologies available in industrialized nations instead of those specifically designed and made for low-resource environment. Finally, the lack of long-term sustainability after NGOs pull out of those countries is a challenge that has yet to have a satisfactory solution. Perhaps we need to think more about transferring knowledge instead of products. The old saying of “give the man a fish you feed him for a day but teach him how to fish you feed him for life” is something to think about.

Jane Gonzalez
Owner, Medwheels Inc
Awesome awesome – keep me posted on new developments & speaking engagements.

Friedrich Menges
Creator, Developer, Scientist, Artist at Spectroscopy Ninja
just to cite Wikipedia:
“The business practices of Intellectual Ventures have caused controversy and the company has been widely criticized for being a patent troll”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Myhrvold

not so sure whether NPE-type companies do much good to the world…

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
I have an anecdote or two that Maurizio told me in confidence that might soften your view a bit. I’m very happy to use today’s announcement to spread the message.

Perhaps he’ll share some of the stories I heard during his talk.

Cole Constantineau
Team Leader, Medical Devices at Helbling
I have a really hard time seeing how Intellectual Ventures will positively influence life for the worlds’ poor. This voracious patent troll doesn’t build anything other than speculative legal cases and mafioso-esque extortion projects. That said, I’m sure this effort will help their image a bit, important for all of their lobbying efforts in DC…