Thomas Insel, MD, leader of the National Institutes of Mental Health since 2002, announced in September his plans to step down next month and join Google Life Sciences. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Dr. Insel opened up about why he is making the move.
"While technology has had an enormous impact . . . in so many parts of our lives, it still really hasn't had the impact one might expect in healthcare," Dr. Insel told WSJ. "And as I thought about this, and talking to people at a number of companies, not just at Google, I got the sense [that] if there was one area that was both in need of a disruptive impact as well as where the potential for having a very significant impact might be made, it was with healthcare, maybe mental healthcare, because of the particular nature of both our diagnostics and our therapeutics."
By capitalizing on technologies that are already widely used, such as cell phones and other internet-ready devices, organizations like Google have the potential to glean enormous amounts of information about patient behavior that could lead to improved diagnoses.
Dr. Insel said Google has invested heavily in imaging and genomics technologies with great results, but could stand to place an emphasis on the next generation of behavior tracking technologies, including sleep, speech, activity and social networking. One area Alphabet, Google's recently created parent company, is putting an emphasis on is projects to forward the scientific understanding of the human brain.
"It is true that at Alphabet, they're always looking for out-of-the box ideas. The language they use is often 'Give us something that will have a 10x impact,' meaning it will change something tenfold rather than just an incremental impact," Dr. Insel told WSJ. "I think that [the National Institutes of Health] and NIMH have done spectacular things. There's actually right now a very rapid pace of progress in certain areas like the BRAIN Initiative. . . .What was really the offer I couldn't refuse was the possibility that a big tech company like Alphabet would want to do something in this area."
When looking back on his tenure with the NIMH, Dr. Insel said the main arena he would have hoped to see more change in is the morbidity rates of major mental illnesses. He attributed this to a handful of causes, citing the need for better science, but said the emphasis on scientific understanding of mental illness does not always bring with it immediate resources and options for patients in need.
"When I first came into the job in 2002, one of the very first talks I gave I talked about the excitement of the science, and at that point, I was talking mostly about epigenetics [the study of how environments affect genes], which was just becoming a reality," Dr. Insel told WSJ. "And it seemed to me to be transformative and so exciting. It was such an innovation. And [then] someone in the audience said, 'Excuse me, but our house is on fire, and you're talking to me about the chemistry of the paint.' I never forgot that. And I think we have to be very honest with ourselves. That indeed the chemistry of the paint is important and very interesting and it will probably make sure it's a better and safer house in 10 to 20 years. But we have to do something with the house that's on fire as well. I worry that we didn't do well enough on that score."