Google's next big data project is focused on discovering indicators of health to help physicians better identify and predict disease, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The project, called Baseline Study, aims to make it possible for healthcare to focus more on prevention rather than treatment. "With any complex system, the notion has always been there to proactively address problems," Andrew Conrad, PhD, the project's lead investigator, told the 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."
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. Researchers will also map each participant's genome and the genomes of the participant's parents. The data will then be fed into Google's computers with the goal of finding "biomarkers" that indicate good health, according to the report.
The pilot stage of the project includes 175 participants, but Baseline Study will eventually expand to include thousands. The pilot stage is being conducted with an unnamed clinical testing firm, though as the project expands, clinics at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C., and Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine will recruit participants, collect data and send de-identified information to Google. Boards at these medical schools will also oversee how Google uses participants' information, according to the report.
Baseline Study is being conducted Google's secretive GoogleX division, most well-known for building Google's driverless car and reported to contain some of the company's top scientists and most innovative products.
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