Message I just sent to spence, is anyone else interested in the idea

[anon030303]

Hi spence

Many people waiting for a cure have resources (time, money, knowledge, personal/medical/business/technological experience) to offer and would more than likely do so freely to help speed up the time it takes to find a cure.

Do you think it would be possible to create a network or use technology to help provide what they can so the developers of medicine can benefit and get things done faster or more effectively?

Perhaps you can talk to the physicians you know that are involved in the development process to state what are the biggest things that hold innovation back. For instance, say its not enough data on what works and doesn’t work in general- the community can help solve and provide a solution to that problem, and share it with every company trying to develop a solution involved.

Here is a video that gives a peek into the possible benefits of group sourcing resources - http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_ander...nnovation.html.

Let’s say there are other problems such as not knowing the effectiveness of certain new treatments because people that benefit from it don't bother to speak up. The community can lend their resources to solve that problem, such as by creating easy to use follow systems that help gather that data.

Another example: Say the marketing cost is a big factor.

"Peter F. Drucker is well known for stating that there is only one valid purpose of a business: to create a customer. And that there are only two basic business functions: marketing and innovation."

The community and people such as yourself can create a freely accessible email newsletter list of prospects (your audience) that are willing to receive information and ads on new treatments. You or other resources from the community can provide a way to protect the audience by reviewing and disclosing full information on what providers of solutions say to the list, but give them free access to the list so cut their costs drastically, and this may help cut costs involved, remove some of the fear of competition, encourage more companies to get involved and encourage innovation.

You may have heard that companies like Google use their employee's down time (their 20% time) to help cultivate the development of more new ideas, some of which eventually become marketable products for them.

In summary, everybody depending on pharmaceutical companies doesn’t have to wait idly by. They can contribute their time and other resources to actively help them speed up the process of innovation. Is this an idea that intrigues you and physicians you know and would like to develop further?

[mkamph]

great idea

[johndoe]

you should call the show and talk to him about it

[Fixed by 35]

There are three ways you can help a research company find a cure for hair loss.

One is to be a volunteer data subject (although as I have said before, the results from volunteers who are too emotionally involved in research generally contaminates results).

The second is to help them raise capital and ensure they retain that capital whilst completing their research (many investors pull out too soon because they are impatient for results).

The third is to not contact them. The minute a hair loss research company says it is researching something, it gets inundated with e-mails from people like us asking them questions. Their investors expect them to respond to them all for relations purposes and they end up spending a considerable amount on running a press office.

As this is high level science, I don't know what else we could do to speed up research. To be fair, a lot of the remaining delays with Histogen, for example, are due to safety processes, which can't be sped up.