I need your help to save the life of my
daughter Hillary Hillary has epilepsy
which causes her recurrent unprovoked
seizures at random times perhaps a few
times a month or as much as several
times a day
her brain cells Owen and control the
purse of electrical impulses for some
way of epilepsy that just causes a
momentary loss of focus almost
unnoticeable but Hillary has what is
called grand mal seizures and for her
it's as though she has a hurricane
inside her head
suddenly with no warning she loses
consciousness her limbs stiffen and she
falls on the ground like a plank of wood
imagine what that means for her life and
what that means to a parent or caregiver
Hillary is now 19 years old she has
never cook a meal because it's too
dangerous
she will never hold a baby or ever drive
a car we watched her closely at all
times
too often she's collapsed and falls on
the ground or on the corner of a piece
of furniture we don't dare let her walk
without someone holding her unless she
is wearing a helmet people stay at her
wondering why she's wearing a helmet
epilepsy can't get better over time but
for some the symptoms never improve for
those people is terrifying and is
isolating we are always worried about
her
but Hillary is actually lucky she lives
in a wealthy advanced city with
wonderful medical help and educational
assistance
she lives you have time where
technological advances that could
significantly enhance her life on the
horizon I believe that technology
innovation and the literal imaginations
can save Hillary but if not her then
other generations of epileptic children
some 15 million peoples around the world
live with epilepsy
that's the population of South Korea
comes to 80% of people live with
epilepsy actually in low or middle
income countries and close to one out of
26 people in the United States actually
suffered from epilepsy or recurring
seizures at some point in their lives
statistically that means they're about
19 people in this auditorium having this
problem some are fortunate enough to get
warning signal of an impending seizures
a strange taste speech impairment or an
abnormal mass emotion that gives them
enough time to take precautionary
measures lie down and stay safe others
may show good response to medication in
their treatment but here is epilepsy
provides no warning signals and is
resistant to medication we have tried
everything given acupuncture
but there is another complication
something called sudden unexpected death
in epilepsy or SUDEP some epileptic
sufferers for no apparent reason often
in their sleep
suddenly die despite even in good health
so that this increases as the patients
wish adulthood that means the clock is
ticking for my daughter so every night
when I put hilary's to bed I'm never
quite sure I will see her alive again I
do the very best I can for her but still
I cannot keep her safe ever but I'm
trying I'm standing here before you
because I have a vision for the future
one where's technology keeps my
daughter's safe today we can monitor
here we spring activity by putting a cap
full of electrodes and sensors onto her
head in a Tesco electroencephalography
or EEG facade the problem is that she
cannot move freely during this
examination because all these electrodes
and sensors are connected by wires to an
amplifier and a recorder even a small
movement of her head will produce noise
in the signal through a sensor
connection and reduce accuracy try
putting a small child motionless in bed
for hours at a time
it's quite a challenge there is also a
special gel that put into the cab to
improve the signal sensitivity look what
this ticket child did to her hairstyle
after the test let's imagine that we can
print all these electrodes and sensors
onto a snuggly fitting fashionable head
or cap and that we could connect all
these electrodes and senses through a
superfast wireless network so that all
data call that could be upload in real
time we can see what's happening in
Hillary's brain as she lives for daily
lives what a difference you will make as
Hillary's goes for daily lives
wearing her stylish cap hat with
miniatures and sensors data is being
sent instant if to a computer there is
using artificial intelligence to analyze
the pattern of brain waves suddenly it
has seizures eminent and send out an
urgent warning to Hillary and her
caregivers that gives her enough time to
step away from the dangerous situation
one bystander what's going to happen and
how to help and lie down so that she is
safe from physical injury let's take
this one step further what if we can
detect an oncoming seizures and instead
of just managing actually prevent it
that's what a pacemaker does for her
heart and what if we could detect an
oncoming seizures and send a pulse of
electricity that would be set the brain
takes about to be engulfed in an
electrical storm and stop that storm in
his tracks scientists and medical
professionals are working on such a
device vagus nerve stimulation or VNS
consists of a device surgically placed
under the patient's call upon and this
devices regular mild electrical pulses
to the brain through the vagus nerve
hoping to reduce the occurrence of
seizures or at least make them less of
you this is the picture of the device
with a penny against it so that we can
illustrate the size of this is a big
device so the surgery to implant it is
going to hurt Hillary and its batteries
last for only about three to eight years
that means my daughter would have to be
cut open regularly with all the
associated pain and risk or for
questionable benefit and one give
miniaturization could shrink this device
and the battery lasts for 20 years if we
could make the electronics inside this
device more integrate and consume less
power
maybe we could just put this device
directly on to the EEG cap like an
external hearing aid rather than running
as a separate unit innovation in
materials engineering also brings new
possibilities new materials might make
this device more durable or more
comfortable to wear electronics
materials that we develop might keep
this device cool even this one's very
hot with many electronics inside new
materials are the key building blocks to
unnoticed new future if we could make
this device even more affordable we can
put it into tens of thousands of
patients and using big data analytics
and collet of learning to figure out how
to make it even work better perhaps then
one day we could understand the mystery
of soda and epilepsy this spring problem
will just become a minor irritation that
you see silly fixed
rather than the lifelong challenge it is
today so for those of you in this room
who are directly or indirectly working
to advance technology building a high
speed 5g network developing a principal
electronics making tiny semiconductor
chips even smaller think about how your
work can bring benefits beyond faster
than no better gadgets or a more
powerful computing systems that's how
and now thing about my work and it gives
me hope and knowledge that technology
will help Hillary slide better and safer
I also have another hope ones that go
beyond Hillary and beyond epilepsy
advances in technologies are making it
possible for people with different kinds
of challenges and problems to lead
normal lives no longer will they feel
isolated and marginalized no longer but
they live in the shadow afraid ashamed
humiliate and is good and when that
happens our world will be a much more
diverse and inclusive place a better
place for all of us to live so let's
work together to make this magic of
reality to help save the life of my
daughter Hillary and the lives of
millions of other sons and daughters
around the world thank you
think