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Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

economist.com

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Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#41

Post by rayiner »

googlryas wrote: post #29
thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #4

How incredible would it be if Alphabet spent, say 1% of their total healthcare venture budget, just running models on all of the different ways that the cost of healthcare could be reduced and access to care could increase. And maybe they do this already (we have no idea if they do, it might be nice to share that information if they did). It's just become so clear that many people believe the anti-science stuff that…

Isn't it fairly obvious how the costs could be decreased? Dozens of other countries have figured it out, there isn't some secret.

And what’s the secret? Having the government do it can’t be the reason, because there’s plenty of government-run things, such as education and transit, where the US pays more to get less, just as in healthcare.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#42

Post by rayiner »

bergenty wrote: post #19
thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #4

How incredible would it be if Alphabet spent, say 1% of their total healthcare venture budget, just running models on all of the different ways that the cost of healthcare could be reduced and access to care could increase. And maybe they do this already (we have no idea if they do, it might be nice to share that information if they did). It's just become so clear that many people believe the anti-science stuff that…

[flagged]

Yes, because what we need is more gerontocracy. People should instead just make peace with the fact that their purpose in life is to reproduce, die within a reasonable time, and hand the world over to the next generation.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#44

Post by xcskier56 »

scarmig wrote: post #16
thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #4

How incredible would it be if Alphabet spent, say 1% of their total healthcare venture budget, just running models on all of the different ways that the cost of healthcare could be reduced and access to care could increase. And maybe they do this already (we have no idea if they do, it might be nice to share that information if they did). It's just become so clear that many people believe the anti-science stuff that…

Healthcare isn't expensive because there are huge swaths of spending unexamined by human intelligence that might become tractable with an automated process. On the contrary, it's one of the sectors that has the most eyes and brains pointed at costs and extracting as most money as possible. On the topic of EMR systems in particular, they suck because the people using them hate them and because the people purchasing th…

Billing is the original sin of healthcare. EMRs (excluding the VA’s old MER VistA) were not developed to improve clinical workflows or outcomes, they were originally conceived to improve and streamline billing. This orientation has massively contributed to the overhead that EMRs like Epic and Cerner introduce.

On the startup and health improve lament side, billing is the rock that so many great ideas break on. It doesn’t matter if the model or business improves care or reduces cost unless it will make a provider more money.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#46

Post by moomoo11 »

systemvoltage wrote: post #24
suture wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming by free you mean universal coverage that is (almost) free at the point of usage then this is a solved problem. What the United States lacks in order to realize a solution is political willpower and an electorate that is savvy enough to know that wanting such a system does not make one a communist. (And that being a communist does not make one an evil person.)

I'm not convinced, even with the best of intentions. In fact, I am convinced of the opposite: A) Universal Health program would result in terrible quality health care B) It would lead to longer wait times, and less choices C) It would be insanely costly to fund. We've been busy printing a lot of $. Increased the Federal deficit from $21T to $30 since COVID and there isn't a good way to fund a bloated system in USA, c…

I’m a bit confused on the choice part. Can you explain?

I think if someone can afford better, private care they should be able to. For example I would probably go to the universal healthcare family doctor but if I need a specific surgery I would like to be able to go to the best care I can get.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#47

Post by moomoo11 »

bergenty wrote: post #27
na85 wrote: post #22

Can't wait to get banned from healthcare with no recourse unless I'm lucky enough to frontpage HN. Sarcasm aside I can't think of a company I'd trust less than Alphabet (maybe Meta) with managing healthcare.

I disagree. Alphabet values human life. Sure they may kill products constantly but I trust the company to uphold certain values, especially around humanistic principles.

Thanks I needed the laugh.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#48

Post by thatfrenchguy »

thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #12
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not getting cheaper healthcare by using more machine learning, it's a hard problem for a reason.

It's actually not. The CBO already built these models last year and reported that they reduced costs in nearly all cases, across the board[0]. It's only a hard problem because some billionaires want us to believe that it's a hard problem. From the summary: > The report makes many sound assumptions but also some questionable ones that are overly pessimistic. Yet, overall, its bottom-line estimates should reassure thos…

Once you have universal healthcare, it’s still going to be hard. You still have a lot of clever providers trying to extract as much money as possible from the system and an insurer that needs to find out what the right price and cost/benefit analysis is. It’s super super hard, and the US is not used to do that.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#50

Post by i5heu »

bergenty wrote: post #27
na85 wrote: post #22

Can't wait to get banned from healthcare with no recourse unless I'm lucky enough to frontpage HN. Sarcasm aside I can't think of a company I'd trust less than Alphabet (maybe Meta) with managing healthcare.

I disagree. Alphabet values human life. Sure they may kill products constantly but I trust the company to uphold certain values, especially around humanistic principles.

Ahhh they "values human life" thats why they developed killer drones in the past I guess. [0]

And that's why they censored the web via the Project "Project Dragonfly"? [1]

Never forget that you are a product for Google, and Google likes to kill it's products.

[0] https://theintercept.com/2018/05/31/google-leaked-emails-dro...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)

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