I love to blog about all the awesome things that the Internet is bringing and how that creates great investment opportunities. But once in a while I have first hand experiences that remind me how much innovation could/should/will (?) occur in other areas. Last week was one of those. One of our kids suddenly had areas of skin the size of quarters essentially dissolve. The pediatrician thought that it was some kind of bacterial infection. But here is where the interesting part starts.
In order to determine what exactly it was the doctor swabbed some skin and then the lab had to culture the bacteria. This turns out to be a surprisingly longish process. Even the fastest available diagnostic, a rough cut to determine if it is MRSA takes two hours (that test came back negative but is apparently not super accurate). The more definitive determination that it was Staph Aureus took over 24 hours and the so-called sensitivities (figuring out which antibiotic works best) apparently require several days. Waiting several days was not an option which meant that the doctor prescribed an especially strong and broad antibiotic.
Now a medical Tricorder may be asking a bit much, but given that we have instant Strep and E.Coli tests available, getting a quick, fast and accurate reading on other bacteria would seem like a realistic opportunity. Based on our experience last week I sure hope someone is working on this! In the meantime, I am happy to report that the antibiotic appears to be working.
