Top Articles: The Future of Health Tech
Week 46, 2018
Investments in health and healthcare by tech companies has skyrocketed the past few years. As a result, the industry is becoming more privatized and updating to include 21st century technology. GAFA has been particularly keen on health tech. Some experts say this is because healthcare is an old system that has a huge need for disruption. But it’s also a way for them to expand their ecosystems so they’re even more part of consumers’ lives. The implications include personalized, more efficient healthcare and more knowledge about our health as a community.
Google Will Take Over Part of DeepMind’s Health Business
By Mallory Locklear from Engadget
From Amazon’s 1492 to Facebook’s (technically Chan-Zuckerberg’s) Biohub GAFA has invested into a lot of health tech these past few years. And it’s about to get even deeper. Alphabet is working to enhance collaborations across all of its subsidiaries, and as part of this, it is moving DeepMind into Google Health initiative. DeepMind is known for creating the AlphaGo AI, but it has also brought some very useful healthcare AIs to market. What’s interesting now is that patient data will now be stored in a Google server, which carries significant privacy concerns. Regardless, it’s likely we can expect more moves like this which means that healthcare will change over the next few years.
Google and Harvard Develop AI to Find Restaurants That Could Make You Sick
By Kyle Wiggers from Venture Beat
Though still technically a health-oriented product, this joint project between Google and Harvard is more about public health than personal health. Aggregating Google Trends searches with location data, the initiative seeks to identify places where food borne illnesses come from. The AI, called FINDER, was tested in Las Vegas and Chicago and showed very promising results. It can be difficult for epidemiologists to trace the origins of an outbreak, so this system can be very helpful in the future to isolate the source of an illness and keep more people healthy.
The Power of Personalized Medicine: How Tech Is Unlocking a New Way of Thinking about Health
By Clare McGrane from Geek Wire
For most of its history, healthcare has relied on a “one size fits all” model of operation. However, as technology gets better, the number of personalized options increases. We can now tailor medical treatments on a microscopic scale. That’s right, we are using people’s unique genes to treat ailments. A panel of experts in the field sat down to talk about what this means for the future of health and why we should care about it.
‘Pokémon Go’ Starts Tracking Steps Using HealthKit and Google Fit
By Richard Lawler from Engadget
When Pokemon Go came out two years ago, people were excited by the idea that it got young people moving. A good portion of the game involves walking to find prizes and achieve rewards. The problem was that the app had to be running for users to get these rewards, which limits when and how people actually do exercise. Now, however, players can earn rewards for walking without ever having to open the app. On the one hand, this certainly makes it easier for the consumers to keep playing the app. And on the other hand, it is a great way for Niantic to push the health narrative that they claim.
Top 8 Healthcare Predictions for 2019
By Reenita Das from Forbes
Now that the year is almost over, predictions for the new one are coming in. For healthcare, the predictions are wide and varied. From more voice tech integrations to shifts from big to small data, experts have covered it all. Essentially, the main takeaway is that healthcare-as-a-service will be a bigger deal next year.
