The Economist He has an interesting article on Alphabet (formerly Google) and their projects in the healthcare industry. Some salient points.
Alphabet is fifth highest in the Nature Index, which measures the impact of scientific papers, in the life sciences field, behind four pharmaceutical giants and 20 points ahead of Microsoft, the only other tech giant in the race.
Where does Alphabet focus its investments? There are 4 broad areas:
These, in approximate order of ambition: wearablehealth records, health-related artificial intelligence, and the ultimate challenge to extending human life.
Can Google solve the EHR records interoperability challenge? They might try.
The new initiative, called Care Studio, targets doctors rather than patients…D [Karen[ DeSalvo [Google’s health chief] She has been vocal about the need for more interoperability since her days in the Obama administration, where she was responsible for coordinating American health information technology. Until that happens, Care Studio is supposed to act as a compiler and repository (which is, of course, searchable).
Other initiatives include using the DeepMind algorithm along with NHS data to create diagnostic tools; AlphaFold – artificial intelligence software that can predict the structure of a protein Calico, a subsidiary that researches age-related diseases, has a $2.5 billion partnership with AbbVie and others.
Will Alphabet Succeed in Health? Only time will prove it.
