Xinran

5/5 (1)

Andy Thompson, CEO of Proteus Digital Health, came up with an idea that brings AI and the healthcare together. He invented the world’s first pill with microchip that tracks your health. The tiny microchip has to be taken together with the medicine and is able to gather data about the effectivity and safety of the related medicine. The microchip is coupled to a smart system where the consumer can see their personal data and get reminders when to take the drug. The sensors in the microchip detect effects of the medicine as high adherence or negative side-effects. As a consequence, a huge amount of costs and even deaths can be reduced. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in developed countries, 50% of patients that are chronically ill experiences non-adherence of medicines. For instance, in the US this amount is approximated around 25%-50% and causes around 125.000 deaths annually.

Moreover, healthcare providers that have permission to gain insight into the data, can work with more efficacy. The doctors are better able to prescribe treatments and prevent unnecessary bad health outcomes. As depicted in the picture below, the microchip is inserted into a capsule of the drug and will eventually transfer the data to a wearable sensor patch (Kleinsmith, 2022).

This innovation seemed very promising at first. However, Proteus filed for bankruptcy one year after its invention. The CEO remains positive and is convinced that its product will flourish in the future (Kleinsmith, 2022). My thoughts on this are also positive and it makes me think why it did not become popular as it can improve the health industry to a great extent.
So, I am curious, have you ever heard of this and what are your thoughts of it?

Sources

Kleinsmith, N. a. P. S., 2022. Proteus Digital Health: Healthcare for Everyone, Everywhere, Rotterdam: s.n.

5/5 (2)

Dating apps have become an enormous business around the world. It connects all kinds of people together who would like to find their soulmate. An example of a dating application is Tantan. The app had around 360 million users in 2020, whereas most of them are in China (Chen, 2020). At first, I thought it was like a Chinese version of Tinder. However, it is not only meant for people in China. You can download it yourself for free in the Google Play store or Apple store and make friends with people all around the world. Tantan has a freemium business model, where users can choose between monthly subscriptions that provide benefits that non-subscribers do not have. The benefits are for example being able to see who liked your profile or having unlimited likes.

As mentioned earlier, Tantan has implemented a freemium business model. It is essential to find the right balance between what they offer for free and not for free. When relatively many people do not buy one of the subscriptions, it indicates either that Tantan offers too many features for free or that it is not clear what value buying one of the subscriptions brings. On the contrary, when relatively many people do buy the premium versions, it can suggest that the application is not appealing enough. After all, it is better to for example have 5% of 2 million users to buy one of the subscriptions than to have 50% of 100.000 users that buy a subscription (Kumar, 2014).

In my opinion, Tantan’s freemium business model has the right balance. It depicts very clear what great benefits the consumer can generate with one of the subscriptions. Have you tried the Tantan app and what do you think about it? If not, I recommend you download and experience Tantan.

Sources

Chen, W., 2020. Chinese dating app Tantan claims 360 million registered users but no profits. [Online]
Available at: https://kr-asia.com/chinese-dating-app-tantan-claims-360-million-registered-users-but-no-profits
[Accessed 28 9 2022].

Kumar, V., 2014. Making “Freemium” Work. Harvard Business Review .

Proteus: the end of the smart pill?

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