Alphabet’s health concerned wing Verily is all set to launch for a colossal multi-year health study which will be pioneered in coordination with Duke University School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine, and Google itself.
Verily is looking for around 1000 American volunteers who would be willing to share their medical records, along with granting it the permission of extracting blood or any other fluid from their body and then link it to their Google account so that the company and its allies may “spur the next generation of medical discoveries.” In return, the participants will receive some compensation for their time, along with getting some of their own helth data shared with them, and an early intel on what the company may learn from their valuable data.
The Project Baseline has been under construction for long, and it was previously planned for a roll out in 21015, however, it did take some extra time, which is not very surprising considering the length and scope of the project. The four year long study will require the volunteers to visit one of many Baseline study sites for a detailed test of one or two days, which will include giving samples of their blood, saliva and other fluids as samples; going through specialized tests such as chest X-rays and echocardiogram; and going through other tests which would analyse their physical strength and answer their health related problems.
Verily has stated that some participants who may be called to visit a study site quarterly for one to two hours to “gather more frequent information about health profiles that we are especially interested in,” and some may be called for other appointments as well.
There is also a plan for trimonthly, half-hour-long online surveys in which the participants will answer questions about diet, exercise and well-being. A mobile app will lodge them additional questions, probably on a regular basis regarding their sleep routines and alcohol consumption.
The health focused wrist watch which Verily unveiled earlier this month will be worn as an “investigational wristwatch” daily, along with a sleep sensor under their mattress. The participant’s home will be equipped with Wi-Fi hub device which will gather all the information from the tracking system and then relate it back to Verily.
You may not simply register for the sake of becoming rich overnight with the compensation money because the pay is $410 per annual site visit; $30 per visit for the shorter quarterly check-ups; and $10 a time for the trimonthly assessment.
Lastly, all the participants will be required to stand naked in front of Mountain View because Verily needs to have their additional medical records as well. There is no clear indication as to what will be done with all this sensitive data, and the commercial motives of the company also remain unclear.
In response to one of the questions in FAQ section, the company only responds;
We will use it to expand the Baseline database and develop advanced tools for collecting, organizing, and analyzing health information. As well, in partnership with qualified researchers and organizations, we will use the data to uncover new medical insights or develop new health products.
Verily is Google’s for profit organisation and therefore, its claims of using body fluids, mood records and health records simply for the sake of building a better future is a little hard to digest. Verily has declined to answer any questions on the subject. Google is involved as well as all the healh data will be linked with the participant’s Gmail account. Mark the increasing importance of the e-mail service here.
Project Baseline’s blog reads;
The Project Baseline study dataset will include clinical, molecular, imaging, self-reported, behavioral, environmental, sensor and other health-related measurements. To organize this information, we are creating an infrastructure that can process multi-dimensional health data – much of which have never been combined for an individual. Our vision is that this data platform can serve as a single query source and may be used for more seamless data integration and collaboration.
The Project Baseline is only starting with the personal data of 1000 Americans, however, it has plans of expanding further;
Eventually we hope to expand internationally to capture health diversity on a global scale.
