V is for Verily – Alphabet using data for healthcare

11

October

2016

4.88/5 (8)

How can the technological expertise of Google be used to improve people’s lives? What are the future trends in HealthTech?

Imagine a chemist and an engineer and a doctor and a behavioral scientist, all working together to truly understand health and to better prevent, detect, and manage disease.

– This is what Verily is all about.

Verily was formerly a division of Google[x] and is now an independent company of Alphabet officially founded in December 2015. Its mission is to employ technology to uncover new truths about health and life science. What is most interesting about this company is its multidisciplinary team: it is composed of experts turning ideas into products by cross-pollinating medicine, engineering, and data science. As an example, they have already produced a smart contact lens for diabetics that continuously monitors glucose in tears (instead of having to prick their fingers to test their blood glucose levels).

 

What does Verily deal with?

The company targets health issues affecting millions, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health. It is organized in four business units: hardware, software, clinical, and science. This is not the first time that Google deals with health issues, and indeed Verily was previously known as Google Life Science.

 

The software Business Unit

Of particular interest for our field of study, the software team is composed of engineering and data gurus who intend to better predict, diagnose, and improve treatments of diseases. Wearable technology is very useful in the prediction phase. The collection of psychological, behavioural, biological, and environmental variables could result in a more detailed patient-segmentation analysis, and allows to gain more knowledge about a disease and why it progresses differently among individuals. This, in turn, gives the possibility to better tailor treatments, and to personalize them based on the specific needs of the individuals.

There is a lot of information residing in our bodies – from our genes to our sleep patterns. The software business unit tries to use this information by developing products, platforms, and computational algorithms to improve people’s lives and to increase patients’ empowerment. In this way, people do not need to spend as much time in hospitals and can get the right medications, while avoiding the risk of side effects (and the associated costs).

 

HealthTech trends to keep an eye on

Verily is just one of the many companies dealing with HealthTech: the future of medicine will have a lot to do with technology, more than it ever did.  Below, a list of three important trends for the near future is proposed:

  • DATA: the importance of monitoring and evaluation of data will keep on rising thanks to the growing adoption of wearables and mobile technologies. The collected information will, in the longer term, allow to have personalized treatments.
  • VIRTUAL / AUGMENTED REALITY: a lot of potential resides in this hardware technology. Surgical training and study can benefit a lot, as the VR / AR can be used for simulations before surgery. Also, they could be used as a psychological relief for patients (e.g.: in Argentina, VR is being used to help cancer patients escape the harsh process of chemotherapy).
  • COMMUNICATION: technology could have a strong impact on the communication means of patient-to-doctor (and viceversa), and patient-to-patient. Mobile devices allow to have instantaneous communication, which enables a doctor to have real-time updates about a patient. Also, Social Media empower patients to create communities of people suffering from the same disease, and they may receive support from the community.

 

How is HealthTech going to evolve in the next few years, in your opinion?

Interested in the topic?

Here are some interesting videos:

SOURCES:

https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/02/google-doctor-jessica-mega/

https://www.statnews.com/2015/12/07/verily-google-life-sciences-name/

https://verily.com/

https://virtualrealityreporter.com/virtual-reality-surgical-medical-application/

 

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Microsoft will pay you to use its new W10 Edge browser

27

September

2016

5/5 (8)

It is common knowledge that the competition to win over the market of Internet browser has been fierce in the past, and Google Chrome has conquered the biggest share of the pie starting from June 2012. Several newcomers have unsuccessfully tried to enter this market, which then appeared to be at a stable and mature stage.

Browser mkt share_Aug16

…Are browser wars really over?

 

Microsoft would certainly not agree. With the launch of its new Windows 10 Operating System in July 2015, the tech giant has released the first version of Microsoft Edge: This is a desktop browser which is promoted as faster, more battery-efficient, safer and all-round better than competitors. A distinctive feature of it is the ability to quickly scribble and annotate on webpages and the possibility to enhance searches with the voice assistance Cortana. However, Edge still has a long way to go before conquering the market also because it is currently available only for computers running Windows 10 (differently from competitors who run on multiple editions of rival OSs): its overall market share is 5% (vs 52% of Chrome’s market share), but only 25% of W10 computers are currently using Edge as browser despite it being the initial default option.

 

The stickiness of the browser market is linked to the concept of Network Effects: the bigger is the users’ base, the more will be the developers (providers of content running on or adjusted for a determined browser, or companies willing to spend money to advertise their products on a determined browser), the higher will be the value of the platform. This is a feedback loop that increases the switching costs of the parties, and makes it harder to change the status quo. And this is why Chrome market share has kept on growing.

 

In order to attack this issue, Microsoft has launched a program that allows users to gain financial benefits from using Edge: The purpose is to bring on-board enough users so as to trigger a new feedback loop on its newly-launched browser. This program is called Microsoft Rewards (formerly Bing Rewards) and is currently only available in the USA: People using Microsoft Edge as browser, Bing as default search engine and Windows Store for the apps, will be able to accumulate points. These points will then be traded in for credits or vouchers to vendors such as Amazon, Skype, Starbucks, Xbox, and the advertisement-free version of Outlook.com.

 

Users will be monitored by Microsoft in order to ensure that they are using the Edge browser for as many as 30 hours per month by tracking signs such as mouse movements to make sure that they are not cheating. However, no precise conversion system of points per hour of usage has yet been specified, apart from the statement that every 1$ spent in the Microsoft/Windows Store corresponds to “at least 1 point”.

 

At this point we should question ourselves: seeing as Edge is a technically good product, will the tactic of paying users be able to break the ‘great wall of Chrome’ and gradually increase Microsoft Edge’s users base and market  share in the browser industry?

 

 

REFERENCES:

  1. Microsoft Edge: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge#JW7akzYofWQ3oeyE.97. Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  2. Microsoft Rewards: https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Rewards. Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  3. Computer world: Edge’s weak adoption contributes to Microsoft’s declining browser share:  http://www.computerworld.com/article/3029631/web-browsers/edges-weak-adoption-contributes-to-microsofts-declining-browser-share.html . Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  4. Express: Microsoft will now PAY YOU to use its unpopular Windows 10 web browser: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/702570/Windows-10-Microsoft-Edge-Failure-Pay-Rewards. Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  5. NetMarketShare: Market share of desktop browser: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=0&qptimeframe=Q. Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  6. SitePoint: Browser wars trends September 2016: https://www.sitepoint.com/browser-trends-september-2016-browser-wars/. Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  7. Tech Times: Microsoft Will Pay You To Use The Windows 10 Edge Browser: Here Are The Details: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/174361/20160820/microsoft-will-pay-you-to-use-the-windows-10-edge-browser-here-are-the-details.htm. Last visited on 26/9/2016.
  8. The guardian: Microsoft paying to use Edge: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/19/microsoft-windows-10-browser-edge-pay-users-bing. Last visited on 26/9/2016.

 

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