Narrator0:10
You're looking at one of the busiest people in the startup industry. Until just several years ago, Shiro Shani was on top of the world. At 17, he was already a civil pilot. He has a graduate degree in business and philosophy. He was a tour guide and accompanied extreme treks to the Himalayas and even won third place in the Ironman competition. But it all ended five years ago when he was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. His condition deteriorated rapidly and now he is completely paralyzed. When we say everything stopped, we relate to the physical being only. In spirit, Shai does not rest for a moment. He currently heads the Prize for Life Association.
He is in his own bed with the only organ he can move: his eyes. Using sensors that recognize even the smallest of eye movements, he can write text and communicate with his surroundings and actually with the entire world. The system can also translate the text to audio input. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, is a fatal, incurable neurodegenerative disease which leads to progressive paralysis and typically results in death within three to five years. Not only is there no cure for ALS, but there is limited knowledge about the natural course of the disease. Until now, ALS patients were monitored in hospitals and clinics where they were required to visit the clinic. Therefore, ALS clinicians don't have a lot of data about ALS. They don't actually know how it progresses. They don't know how it looks, how the symptoms appear, how they manifest from day to day. This is where the ALS Mobile Analyzer fits. This is an application developed by Shai and his friends at Prize for Life whereby users log in anonymously and conduct a simple test consisting of several tasks like drawing, finger tapping, speech, and movement. We have developed a complete platform that monitors the daily functions of ALS patients in the comfort of their own homes and that can objectively, accurately, and frequently jump-start bring us closer to finding a cure to ALS.
One of the greatest things that we see in this kind of technological revolution that we live through every day is how much it enabled everyday people to change their lives. So the ability to build an app by someone who's not Apple is something that was completely unavailable up to a few years ago. They have a lot to offer. They have a very unique type of knowledge about the disease which they understand in a way that nobody else understands and with a detail level that nobody else understands. And nobody's asking for that data. Nobody knows that it exists and nobody knows how valuable it is. All that I can to find a cure to ALS. Like the saying goes, if not me then who, and if not now then when. Shai knows that the chances of finding a cure to ALS in his lifetime are slim, but it doesn't stop him from doing everything he can toward achieving that goal.
