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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

#91

Post by Gehlitio »

GoOnThenDoTell wrote: post #21

Please no. They have too much info on everyone already

Do you life with something chronic? Something were not a lot of people are doing research and we're there was no real discovery in the last 20 years?

Because I do and you know how scattered the field of medicine is?

There is one realistic way of getting more people with chronic issues new threatments and it's data. Lots and lots of it.

IF someone can pull that of while protecting the individuals I believe it's alphabet. Together with deep mind and all the other research they do.

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

#92

Post by Gehlitio »

throwawaylinux wrote: post #87
glglwty wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is exactly why they might be able to make healthcare cheaper.

Healthcare is not expensive for lack of huge government-entangled corporations monopolizing and commercializing patient personal information. At least not in USA, where healthcare legislation is written by and for the industry (e.g., https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamac... ), and total healthcare expenditure is somewhere around double that of most other first world countries with more universa…

There are still plenty of expensive threatments like cancer were the diagnosis is also costly just due to the tech used.

A proper MRI is expensive, the analysis is slow and need experts etc.

There are plenty of things to optimize.

And when we are done with us, it has to reach the next level to become so cheap and easy to use that everyone on our planet has access to it.

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

#93

Post by Proven »

systemvoltage wrote: post #26
GoOnThenDoTell wrote: post #21

Please no. They have too much info on everyone already

Step 1) Allow Gov to build up regulations so complex that it requires a force of nature to over come. Step 2) Big Tech builds technology around those regulations and sells it to people. Step 3) Viola! we have a giant massive ocean-like moat that surrounds the Big Gov + Big Tech castle. Never to be breached by the likes of Silicon Valley startups or otherwise. We are already in a dystopian time.

No post body was provided.

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

#94

Post by suture »

refurb wrote: post #54
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.)

Canada has "free" universal healthcare, but to call it a "solved problem" seems pretty naive.

The naivety is in thinking that if it doesn’t work in Canada then it must not be a solved problem. The naivety is in thinking that if you can find anecdotal evidence that in a particular instance Canada’s system worked worse than the U.S. system then it must be the case that Canada’s system is worse.

The U.S. per capita spends far more on healthcare than any other OECD country. We don’t get correspondingly better outcomes or coverage. Universal healthcare is a solved problem within the context that every system necessarily involves some sort of rationing since there aren’t enough medical resources in any country to do otherwise.

If you don’t want to use the phrase “solved system” then don’t but don’t pretend the U.S. is any way better other than in anecdotal instances. Below is a source for information on per capita spending for OECD nations. You can easily find information on health our outcomes, life expectancy, teen pregnancies, infant mortality, etc.

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/876d99c3-en/index.html?i...

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

#95

Post by thisgoodlife »

Rygian wrote: post #78
cardosof wrote: post #72

Just imagine a world where they revolutionized healthcare as they did with advertising!

Easy to imagine: patient records will now include ads for expensive drugs. Doctors can make $ on the side by referring patients to Google Pharma. Drug labs can dig a moat around their products by buying ad placements in doctors' digital prescription pads.

I’m all for it if it means free health care.

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

#96

Post by suture »

klyrs wrote: post #39
suture wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I know this. However, in this age of easy information and knowledge about other societies readily available it becomes more a matter of willful ignorance than being duped by propaganda.

You aren't familiar with the propaganda if you think folks duped by it would consider "other societies" with anything other than fear hatred and contempt. The problem with "do your own research" is confirmation bias.

Well, as I said, in my opinion people can be blamed given the readily available information and in regard to the multi-decade irrational fear of socialism. Willful ignorance is a thing.

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

#97

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos »

suture wrote: post #7
scifibestfi wrote: post #3

Google offers a lot of free services. Can they figure out how to make healthcare free?

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.)

Being a communist absolutely makes you an evil person. About 5 times more evil than the group of people they fought against in a war.

As for socialized medicine it makes doctors another arm of the government. In the UK last week (or the week before) one arm of the government ordered another arm of the government to kill a 9 year old. We are also just outside a 2 year stretch of tyranny of governments all over the world giving that arm of government near unilateral power over our freedom at the point of a gun.

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

#98

Post by HWR_14 »

metadat wrote: post #15
HWR_14 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running models is literally the way to satisfy the Certificate of Need. It's the way to fix the problem.

Please explain further, this makes no sense to me.

The certificate of need is literally based on a justification for why those government subsidized hospital beds aren't wasteful. The way to demonstrate that is with a model. A better/cheaper model is the way to go there.

Therefore, an AI that generates good models is valuable.

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

#99

Post by throwawaylinux »

Gehlitio wrote: post #92
throwawaylinux wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare is not expensive for lack of huge government-entangled corporations monopolizing and commercializing patient personal information. At least not in USA, where healthcare legislation is written by and for the industry (e.g., https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamac... ), and total healthcare expenditure is somewhere around double that of most other first world countries with more universa…

There are still plenty of expensive threatments like cancer were the diagnosis is also costly just due to the tech used. A proper MRI is expensive, the analysis is slow and need experts etc. There are plenty of things to optimize. And when we are done with us, it has to reach the next level to become so cheap and easy to use that everyone on our planet has access to it.

> There are still plenty of expensive threatments like cancer were the diagnosis is also costly just due to the tech used.

> A proper MRI is expensive, the analysis is slow and need experts etc.

I'm sure that's very true. A company that's struggles to keep a rudimentary chat app running for any length of time, spectacularly miscalculated its fiber project, to name a few obvious ones, does not instill any confidence that they would be the one to improve this. The medical industry is far more conservative and far more complicated than what Google has proven it is able to deal with IMO. You can't just move fast and break things, you can make shit up as you go along, you can't invent your own standards.

> There are plenty of things to optimize.

They've also not performed impressively on any kind of "AI" related thing, if that's what they're thinking. Their self-driving cars are still a curiosity and a long way off being revenue positive, if there is even a path to it, for example. Industry and legislative inertia and baggage aside, I don't even think a big old cumbersome dinosaur like Google has the chops to come in and make a big change. Put it this way if some revolutionary new startup company had a really great idea in healthcare, you would be disappointed if Google bought them.

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

#100

Post by refurb »

suture wrote: post #94
refurb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada has "free" universal healthcare, but to call it a "solved problem" seems pretty naive.

The naivety is in thinking that if it doesn’t work in Canada then it must not be a solved problem. The naivety is in thinking that if you can find anecdotal evidence that in a particular instance Canada’s system worked worse than the U.S. system then it must be the case that Canada’s system is worse. The U.S. per capita spends far more on healthcare than any other OECD country. We don’t get correspondingly better out…

Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

I’m not sure how your reply has anything to do with what I said.

“Better than the US” is not some hurdle that makes a problem “solved”.

Canada is likely better at snow removal but that doesn’t make it a “solved problem”.

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