Team:BGU Israel/Human Practice/Project Assessment

We found it very important to think all aspects of the Inner Doctor through, we even met the CEO of a strategic consultant firm – "Triger Foresight" of Delloitte, who helped us identify the key factors in the project. We reviewed the projects risks, feasibility, security aspects and practical options. Due to much uncertainty in the process a business plan was not included, however an analysis of economic potential and how the project will affect stake holders was made.

The Israeli Diabetes Association Chief Executive recommended that regarding health Risks we consult with the most prominent figure in the field of Metabolism in Israel – MD Prof. Jacob Bar Tana. We arranged a meeting and discussed the current situation of the problem, the up to date treatments for Metabolic Syndrome and what unsolved problems still remain. Prof. Bar Tana explained how today's medicine treatments treat every symptom in a singular way, thus, increasing the risk that there will be worsening in another health aspect, which will need a different medication to be treated with, and so on. As he said: "sometimes what is good for one problem makes some other problem worse". He was glad to hear that like him we address big picture of the Metabolic Syndrome, and that we understand that there is dependency and relation between all symptoms. We chose to treat the Metabolic Syndrome so it can truly improve and heal the structure of all the symptoms in a better way than various other existing treatments. Prof. Bar Tana also reviewed our methods, pointing out more efficient ones and places where we might have some problems, this helped guiding our laboratory work very much and also gave us professional support and assurance. (More about The Inner Doctor treatment healing capabilities and risks here)

A little about the Feasibility of the Inner Doctor treatment - There are many medicines which their goal is to reduce insulin resistance or to improve metabolism. However they all lack inner self-regulation mechanisms which could prevent Hyperactivity that could lead to unhealthy side effects, we work to avoid them and that is one place where we fit in. In addition, medicine companies already know how to synthesis biological materials like RNA or DNA but the real challenge is to manufacture effective delivery materials. Now the technology is generally available, yet full Development and production of Smart biological medicine can only be achieved by Cooperation of biomedical, biotechnology, chemistry and materials engineers.

When dealing with a health problem of such a wide scope, it is necessary to analyze how it will affect various Stake Holders. It will hopefully prevent pre-Diabetes people from become

Diabetes, thus improving their lives, improving their and their families future work capacity and decreasing their dependency of health and medical care. This treatment will significantly improve the lives of people suffering from the Metabolic Syndrome, to a level they will stop using certain drugs, visit the doctor less often, be able to work more productively and live a happier life with fewer side effects. Healthy lifestyle, and nutrition professions such as Diet experts, sports trainers might see a small decrease in demand however there will still be work for them because prevention still will be the better option, better than getting sick and receiving treatment. Doctors will have less work and more time to spend on other patients (hopefully). The medical insurance companies will save money, the Health Ministry will save money on facilities and services that will not be necessary anymore, plus the government will gain more money from the rise of production level in society. Biotechnology research will become very desirable and even more prestige, new jobs for biologists and people in charge of producing the Inner Doctor treatment will open, and generally funds with flow in greater amounts to Synthetic Biology projects.

Product Price development analysis is quite tricky to do in this early stage of the process. Of course price will include DNA & RNA production – salaries, lab equipment and materials, Delivery method development, clinical experiments, building several prototypes, official regulation approvals, and also it is hard to approximate how much time research will take until readiness. All these uncertain factors make is too presumptuous to calculate a non based price. On the bright side, what we do know is that when it becomes FDA approved production costs will decrease as the quantity of production will increase. Plus when it starts working governments will be happy to invest in this treatment so it will save the lives of their citizens and much money for the country.

An important question to ask was How the Inner Doctor will be used by the patient or the End User"? We reflected on our experiences with the Diabetic people we met. Although we call our product an Inner Doctor and it does replace the treatment and monitoring of a doctor, it will not replace the doctor's diagnose. First of all a person will go get diagnosed by a doctor who will then recommend the Inner Doctor treatment. For treating Obesity via the Fat Burning strategies it will be enough to receive treatment once in a few months. For the Diabetes treatment via the insulin sensitivity strategy, the patient will need to receive daily treatments. Treatment will be given at hospitals, in the form of an injection. We hope to do the impossible with the Inner Doctor treatment and set an opportunity to heal from chronic diseases.