Google Takes On The Human Body

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Google's latest project involves identifying health biomarkers in order to help physicians predict disease.

Google is again delving into big data, this time focusing on identifying and predicting disease. The project – called Baseline Study – plans to use genetic markers to make prevention rather than treatment the focus of healthcare.

"With any complex system, the notion has always been there to proactively address problems," Andrew Conrad, PhD, the project's lead investigator, told the Wall Street Journal. "That's not revolutionary. We are just asking the question: If we really wanted to be proactive, what would we need to know? You need to know what the fixed, well-running thing should look like."

According to Becker's Hospital Review, the project will collect hundreds of tissue and fluid samples from each participant and gather information on participants' metabolism, heart rate, and other body processes. Patient genomes and the genomes of their parents will also be recorded. All of this data will be entered into Google's computer where it will be scoured for certain biomarkers that would, Google hopes, indicate good health.

The Wall Street Journal reports, "So far, most biomarkers that have been discovered are related to late-stage diseases because studies usually focus on sick patients. Researchers have tried to use them to spot diseases earlier with mixed results, according to Sam Gambhir, who chairs the Department of Radiology at Stanford University's medical school” and has been works on the Baseline project.

He says the researchers have learned their discoveries will be incremental. "We used to talk about curing cancer and doing this in a few years. We've learned to not say those things anymore."

The pilot project includes 175 participants, but will eventually expand to thousands, bringing up the question of security. The idea of Google having access to patients' information "right down to the molecules inside their cells" raises security issues. The project will be monitored by institutional review boards and, once it is in full swing, just what that information is used for will be decided by the boards at both Duke University and Stanford University.

"That's certainly an issue that's been discussed," said Dr. Gambhir. "Google will not be allowed free rein to do whatever it wants with this data."