I was at Dell World last week, and it is kind of amazing how far the company has come since it went private. Interestingly, much of the big tent content was less about Dell's technology and more about how technology was being used to change the world.

This was kind of a scary event in some cases, because we are far from ready for some of the changes.

I'll share some of the stories from Dell's final Ted-like keynote series and close with my product of the week: Dell's Prototype Smart Desk.
  
Saving Lives With the Internet of Things

Johns Hopkins told an interesting story of the problems connected to a big healthcare provider. It has massive amounts of data from a variety of sources, including third-party providers and an ever-increasing group of connected healthcare devices.

Users range from internal staff to patients and external service providers, and they are wrapped with very focused draconian regulations preventing unauthorized access. Yet the goal is to make sure everyone who is supposed to have access actually gets it very easily.

By using technology advancements over the last few years, Hopkins has been able to connect all the various components electronically, and the result (among other things) has been a vastly reduced need for patients to go to their care provider physically. However, while the growth in the use of these services has been impressive, the result falls far short of the goal.

Johns Hopkins is moving aggressively to technologies that will allow medicines to tell patients when to use them and when they are no longer useful. It is planning on implementing smart devices -- like smart contact lenses and smart hearing aids that can monitor a patient's health and report the findings, telling the patient and doctor if the medications are working, and reporting moment-by-moment health changes in the patient.

The plan is to implement genomics, so that this data can be used to deliver highly personalized care and medicine. This looks into the physical makeup of the patient; we are all just a little different.

Along with all of the data it is collecting, Hopkins needs and is developing an advanced natural language system that can better guide patients toward a healthier life, including recommendations for appropriate monitored exercise to help us have a vastly better life.

Sharing Economy and Kiva

There is a significant problem associated with trying to figure out how to help the poor effectively. A lot of us have a desire to help out, but there are few ways to do this that let you both feel good about what you did and actually make a difference.

So many charities seem to be more about collecting money than they are about actually fixing something. More importantly, giving people money or food is a temporary fix; ideally, what you'd want to do is help people dig themselves out of poverty.

Kiva was created to do exactly that. It is a micro-loan service, and it now does around US$630 million in microloans a year, helping more than 80,000 people dig themselves out of poverty.

This service connects people who want to help with those that need it, and it makes a real difference by giving those who need help the ability to help themselves.

The same kind of technology that makes this possible also is being used to allow people to rent out their home, an rent (rather than buy) lawnmowers and other portable appliances from neighbors who aren't using them. In effect, technology is enabling a variety of micro-economic solutions that are connecting people all across the world in many more amazing and incredibly powerful ways.

Source : http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Dell-Using-Technology-to-Change-the-World-81324.html