Necessity the Mother of Invention
[Applause]
they say that necessity
is the mother of invention
i grew up in lebanon during a time of
war
and conflict scarcity and inequality
during a time when lives were destroyed
babies decapitated
children orphaned wives widowed
and lebanese of all age and gender
crippled by the most horrific and
indescribable injuries
that still scar my memory to this day
i saw firsthand how access to safe and
affordable healthcare
was not a privilege everyone enjoyed
at times it made me feel really helpless
and at times empowered this was the root
of my inspiration
i believe so strongly that if we look to
areas of the world where health care is
needed most
to those areas where even access to the
basics is a major challenge
that it is there that we can find
solutions relevant to us all
for it is in these places that we find
the courage
to embrace the unknown and to take steps
that help us move
forward
i always knew i wanted to be a surgeon a
reconstructive surgeon
because i really wanted to make a
difference in patients lives
i wanted to restore their form and
function
at a young age i learned about some of
the inspirational work some charities
were doing in transforming patients
lives
blighted by physical deformity caused by
poverty
by disease by violence in areas of the
world where access to reconstructive
surgery was virtually non-existent
this was something i wanted to be a part
of
i’d like to introduce you to ali ali was
a 21 year old young man in the heart of
gaza
the eldest of a big family and the sole
breadwinner
working extremely hard every day to make
sure there was enough food on the table
for his family for his brothers and
sisters
and despite this heavy responsibility on
such young shoulders
ali was a happy optimistic young man
with big dreams
he wanted to be a nurse he wanted to
secure a stable job
but more importantly he wanted to give
back to his computer to his community
a community that suffered and endured
for so long
suddenly ali’s life was flipped upside
down
like so many people he knew he too fell
victim to the violence that plagues life
in gaza on a daily basis
he was at the wrong place at the wrong
time and got caught in a bomb blast
injury
his hand was mutilated his dreams
crushed
and his ambitions of becoming a nurse
snuffed out in a matter of seconds
hampered by his ability to work his
future looked extremely bleak
dr hafez a local surgeon heard about
ali’s case and was moved by his plight
he was determined to do whatever it took
to help him
but he had one big problem he needed
access to expertise which was not
available in gaza
the answer came to him when he heard
about a new cutting-edge
technology that would allow him to
access expertise from outside of gaza to
help him
using an augmented reality collaborative
software
a surgeon outside of gaza was able to
virtually transport himself into dr
hafiz’s operating room
simply by using his ipad
through the software he was able to
visually and practically engage in the
operation
to virtually scrub in and by mentoring
and proctoring them step by step using
illustrations and diagrams
together they were able to reconstruct
ali’s hand as if he was standing right
there in the operating room with them
now ali had a chance a chance at a
positive life
a meaningful life a life he wanted to
live
this technology transformed his life and
his family’s life they now had hope
he was now able to work again and he was
now able to pursue his dreams of
becoming a nurse
i’ve always been struck by the strange
imbalance between access
to health to surgical services and need
parts of the world struck by war famine
poverty and extreme deprivation
and those areas where we know that
surgical services can make the biggest
difference
are the areas with the greatest scarcity
this was the inspiration that led me to
create and design the software
the germ of this idea came from a need
and a necessity
i asked myself how can we address this
this imbalance between supply and demand
in a world where billions of people
carry around a device
every day that allows them to talk to
anyone no matter where they are on the
planet
surely we didn’t have to rely solely on
having a surgeon physically present in
an operating room
technology was removing barriers to
space and time
all we had to do was to apply that
technology in the right ways
we face a scarcity of surgical resources
in our nhs 2 the nhs
that we love and work in with increasing
budgetary constraints
and an ever-increasing constraint and
demand to be
faster quicker sharper leaner rationing
is becoming an everyday reality
in surgery this translates into special
services such as oncology and heart
disease
centralizing into fewer and fewer
priority settings
and whilst this improves control of
resources
it reduces access at a local level
i’m determined that things don’t need to
be this way
imagine that specialists instead of
being isolated in certain locations
could share their expertise freely
without ever having to leave where they
are
imagine what this would do to waiting
times and how much money could be saved
and imagine how this free flow of
knowledge could breathe life back into
surgical training
where students and trainees could sit in
on a wider range of procedures
without ever having to leave their
locations
and that they could be inspired by
world-renowned experts no matter where
they were in the world
and imagine how these expert skills
rather than shrinking into isolated
pockets could blossom and spread around
the country and around the world
this is not science fiction this is
something i have made possible through
passion and perseverance
these ideas were born out of a challenge
of necessity
and by embracing that challenge we are
able to tackle much wider issues in
healthcare
if i ask one thing of you tonight it is
to open your minds
open to your mind to the possibility
that we can be friends with technology
it has allowed me to achieve what i
always set out to do
to make a difference in people’s lives
and to my profession
for me and for others technology was and
is a step into the unknown but by
embracing that challenge
and when necessity forces us to we can
achieve some really amazing things
thank you
[Applause]