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Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

nytimes.com

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Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#21

Post by toomuchtodo »

newman8r wrote: post #13
dawhizkid wrote: post #10

As someone who most recently worked in product at a healthcare startup I found the most difficult thing about innovation in the space is the cost of compliance/regulation. When you work in an industry that is so highly regulated, and assuming you are working at a company that follows the rule of law, how do you actually "disrupt" a set of problems in this industry when there is so little wiggle room for doing things…

I'm pretty sure email can be HIPAA compliant as long as you implement the system using the established guidelines.

Indeed it is as long as you’ve configured your email system to use TLS and not downgrade to no encryption if the handshake fails for mail systems where HIPAA-governed information is departing to.

Source: Not a lawyer, not your lawyer. Sign off provided by non profit bio research orgs lawyer before I set it up.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#22

Post by jghn »

killjoywashere wrote: post #16
hacker_9 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monitoring devices are the real problem, not the people. Do you think all weight spikes simply equate to having CHF? You can't just rely on such a basic measurement when dealing with an incredibly complex system such as the human body. A lot more specialist equipment is going to be needed to come to a final conclusion (Questioning from experts, MRIs, XRays, even Microsurgery with cameras). What consumers can curr…

Your comment is a great example of the disconnect between people in this space and people not in this space. Do you actually think anyone in this space would believe that weight spikes are tied to CHF in all cases? You don't diagnose CHF by weight. It's something you trend in known patients. Comments like this are one reason why doctors give zero shits about the potential of computing. Explaining even the basics of a…

I'm a software guy in the healthcare space, albeit not medical devices. We see this problem all the time. Despite the fact that most of the people involved have degrees, often Phd level, in CS, Math, and Physics we see no end of other software folks from typical tech companies coming in and describing how we just don't know what we're doing and that we need big tech to come in and disrupt us.

There's a reason we do things the way we do them and it's not because we're stupid and/or ignorant.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#23

Post by c3534l »

hacker_9 wrote: post #11
blhack wrote: post #7

Good. I spent a few years working in a medical IoT startup, and the current state of the "mainstream" medical monitoring technology is not inspiring. During a brainstorming meeting, I asked one of our cofounders, a physician, to tell me about some of the problems he had seen in health. Don't try and solve it, just lets talk about problems. He said that by far one of the most common causes for re-hospitalization is co…

The monitoring devices are the real problem, not the people. Do you think all weight spikes simply equate to having CHF? You can't just rely on such a basic measurement when dealing with an incredibly complex system such as the human body. A lot more specialist equipment is going to be needed to come to a final conclusion (Questioning from experts, MRIs, XRays, even Microsurgery with cameras). What consumers can curr…

If you're going to monitor every aspect of a person's life, you're going to generate so much data that you'll generate almost nothing but false positives. None the less, I don't see why you couldn't just scale your level of significance way up and be a useful screening device. Obviously any diagnosis must be made by a doctor, but that doesn't mean your biometric information wouldn't be useful.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#24

Post by hacker_9 »

rhombocombus wrote: post #14
hacker_9 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monitoring devices are the real problem, not the people. Do you think all weight spikes simply equate to having CHF? You can't just rely on such a basic measurement when dealing with an incredibly complex system such as the human body. A lot more specialist equipment is going to be needed to come to a final conclusion (Questioning from experts, MRIs, XRays, even Microsurgery with cameras). What consumers can curr…

It is possible that some of the noise (non-medically relevant changes) could be filtered algorithmically, and conversely conditions might be able to be picked up that might not be noticed by a normal provider. Physicians use those tools to diagnose disease all the time, that's why there is a thermometer, scale, and stethoscope in every doctor's office in the world, I don't understand how these tools aren't useful.

They can tell you something is different, or out of the normal range, they don't give you the real cause of the problem though. This is left to the doctor who will take into account age, gender, medical history, as well as the fuzzy description of the problem from the patient. Then they'll give you some medication and hope that it heals in a few days, if not, then re-assess and do more trial and error diagnostics and medications (which can go on for months, even years).

If we had technology that could monitor internal changes on a real time basis though, then the face of medicine would change forever.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#25

Post by jnordwick »

killjoywashere wrote: post #16
hacker_9 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monitoring devices are the real problem, not the people. Do you think all weight spikes simply equate to having CHF? You can't just rely on such a basic measurement when dealing with an incredibly complex system such as the human body. A lot more specialist equipment is going to be needed to come to a final conclusion (Questioning from experts, MRIs, XRays, even Microsurgery with cameras). What consumers can curr…

Your comment is a great example of the disconnect between people in this space and people not in this space. Do you actually think anyone in this space would believe that weight spikes are tied to CHF in all cases? You don't diagnose CHF by weight. It's something you trend in known patients. Comments like this are one reason why doctors give zero shits about the potential of computing. Explaining even the basics of a…

A doctor accusing other professions of being arrogant? That's rich.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#26

Post by gumby »

dawhizkid wrote: post #10

As someone who most recently worked in product at a healthcare startup I found the most difficult thing about innovation in the space is the cost of compliance/regulation. When you work in an industry that is so highly regulated, and assuming you are working at a company that follows the rule of law, how do you actually "disrupt" a set of problems in this industry when there is so little wiggle room for doing things…

It could be your mindset. When I worked in drug development (wet chemistry and lots of animal studies) the regulation, while everpresent, just didn’t seem like any kind of burden when compared to everything else we had to deal with.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#28

Post by aviv »

It's unfortunate that people think "tech" is what health care needs, when in reality society would benefit tremendously if something as simple as a 5-10 day water fast became mainstream [again], as it used to be, before modern medicine took over.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#29

Post by hacker_9 »

killjoywashere wrote: post #16
hacker_9 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monitoring devices are the real problem, not the people. Do you think all weight spikes simply equate to having CHF? You can't just rely on such a basic measurement when dealing with an incredibly complex system such as the human body. A lot more specialist equipment is going to be needed to come to a final conclusion (Questioning from experts, MRIs, XRays, even Microsurgery with cameras). What consumers can curr…

Your comment is a great example of the disconnect between people in this space and people not in this space. Do you actually think anyone in this space would believe that weight spikes are tied to CHF in all cases? You don't diagnose CHF by weight. It's something you trend in known patients. Comments like this are one reason why doctors give zero shits about the potential of computing. Explaining even the basics of a…

What an ironic comment - I tell a software developer that medical science isn't as easy as measuring weight changes, supporting the point that doctors need to do a lot more than that to come to a diagnosis, and then a doctor (I assume) tells me to STFU because.. oh, of what I originally said in the first place. What was your point here? I hope you don't make these kind of mistakes with actual patients.

Re: Big Tech Is Going After Health Care

#30

Post by killjoywashere »

jnordwick wrote: post #25
killjoywashere wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is a great example of the disconnect between people in this space and people not in this space. Do you actually think anyone in this space would believe that weight spikes are tied to CHF in all cases? You don't diagnose CHF by weight. It's something you trend in known patients. Comments like this are one reason why doctors give zero shits about the potential of computing. Explaining even the basics of a…

A doctor accusing other professions of being arrogant? That's rich.

You mean where I said

> I didn't spill any data (that I know of)

> doctors also don't even know how to frame their problems,

> most of them punch out of math as fast as possible.

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