Google to Collect Data to Define Healthy Human • Hacker News Board

Re: Google to Collect Data to Define Healthy Human

#31

Post by tempodox » Fri, Jul 25, 2014, 12:38 PM UTC

timothya wrote: post #13

This reminds me of something Larry Page said at TED this year: I say, wouldn't it be amazing if everyone's medical records were available anonymously to research doctors? And when someone accesses your medical record, a research doctor, they could see, you could see which doctor accessed it and why, and you could maybe learn about what conditions you have. I think if we just did that, we'd save 100,000 lives this yea…

This is BS on several levels. Then again, that a Goog head honcho is not a friend of “Internet privacy” isn't really a surprise. And him misrepresenting the reasons and consequences of that privacy is to be expected. Never let the truth stand in the way of profit or power.

As for medical records, no institution hoarding them has any interest in sharing them. Patients are not consulted on this, so their privacy is only a tiny part of the reason. As far as patient privacy goes, “anonymising” them is not so easy either, as another commenter already explained.

Re: Google to Collect Data to Define Healthy Human

#32

Post by thrush » Fri, Jul 25, 2014, 1:08 PM UTC

psbp wrote: post #15

thrush wrote: post #12

I'm excited to know which diets, exercises and lifestyle define a healthy human, which I'm hoping this information will give me (assuming the information will be released).

"I'm excited to know which diets, exercises and lifestyle define a healthy human" The thrust of this approach (as mentioned in the article) is that they're searching for the magic of optimal biomolecular processes, not necessarily a universal regimen.

That's exactly what I'm hoping to find out. Optimal (and achievable) biomolecular processes should be the empirical drive behind any regimen.

Re: Google to Collect Data to Define Healthy Human

#33

Post by skywhopper » Fri, Jul 25, 2014, 1:17 PM UTC

There are a few flaws in the thinking here: One, that we can define a "healthy human" or that any humans can be found that are operating at full health. Two, that there is a single set of traits that defines a healthy human, or that it could be distilled via sampling and synthesizing data about many humans. Three, that any such indicators or traits they discover will not change over time.

There is undoubtedly the need for tremendous amounts of research into human physiology and health, but there's a very naive hubris that runs through all these grand analysis projects that promise to solve all human health woes. Our bodies are the most complex systems that we know of in the entire universe. The idea that we are anywhere close to understanding how they should optimally work is just completely daft.

Just look back at the promises made by the Human Genome Project in the early 90s. Yes, we've learned a lot since then, but mostly we've learned that the relationship between our bodies and our genes is far far more complicated than we imagined 25 years ago.

Re: Google to Collect Data to Define Healthy Human

#34

Post by belorn » Fri, Jul 25, 2014, 1:36 PM UTC

timothya wrote: post #13

This reminds me of something Larry Page said at TED this year: I say, wouldn't it be amazing if everyone's medical records were available anonymously to research doctors? And when someone accesses your medical record, a research doctor, they could see, you could see which doctor accessed it and why, and you could maybe learn about what conditions you have. I think if we just did that, we'd save 100,000 lives this yea…

The question about medical records is a red herring since the problem is mostly solved already. You treat the records as private, which is only unlocked to other doctors who has a recorded valid reason for accessing it. This is how many journal system operate today at hospitals and police station, and except for the occasional bad monitoring of it, it seems to operate quite well.

Researcher should be forced to follow ethical guidelines in order to prevent data mining that try to unearth facts written between the lines, like sexual orientation. Patients should also be asked if the journal can be shared with researchers, in similar fashion as asking patients if they will accept to have an intern in the room. Last, there need to be some liability if journals get leaked. It is very important to create economic incentives for functional security, which experts are paid to regularly verify and test.

This has of course nothing to do with keeping large databases about people and selling it as a service or product. Nothing at all about Google business model.

Re: Google to Collect Data to Define Healthy Human

#35

Post by paletoy » Fri, Jul 25, 2014, 2:06 PM UTC

ejain wrote: post #16

The limiting factor right now isn't the lack of clever algorithms or computational power, but the lack of data that covers enough people over enough time with enough depth and quality. Also, more of former can't make up for a lack of the latter, even if it's sexier, especially for a company like Google. They should consider partnering with these guys: http://www.nature.com/news/medicine-gets-up-close-and-person... .

An alternative limiting factor could be the lack of great, low cost ,measurement tools. But there are some signs we're getting there, like this[1] chip based platform that can test for 170,000 proteins on a single test, cheaply.

Maybe the thing behind this google move is an understanding that it's possible, in some time feasible for google's projects, to commercialize such testing platforms, and they want in at the opportunities that will result ?

[1]http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2014/03/led-based-la...