Google’s big health care play

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Mar 02, 2023 View in browser   By Ruth Reader, Erin Schumaker and Ben Leonard THE NEXT CURES Google hopes its AI will improve TB diagnoses. | Getty Images Artificial intelligence might hold the key to bringing tuberculosis under control, Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hope. They’re working with India’s Apollo Hospitals and the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia to test the technology’s effectiveness as a screening tool. The stakes are high, Sreenivasa Raju Kalidindi, CEO of Apollo Radiology International in Hyderabad, India, tells Ruth. Among infectious diseases in India, he said, TB is “second only to Covid in terms of number of deaths.” But TB is curable, so early detection can bring down the toll. One reason the Gates Foundation sought to partner with Google is the company’s ability to scale technology and drive down cost. “We actually search out technologies that may have dual market, where there's an ability to sustain or build revenue from high-income-country markets, and then we help to subsidize the entry into low-income-country or middle-income-country markets,” said Andrew Trister, Gates’ deputy director of digital health and innovation. That method, in turn, gives Google an opportunity to test its health technology and get a jump on a nascent market. Google has identified the health care industry as a key area where it can show off its AI prowess. “Health care is one of the greatest opportunities that I see on the current horizon to demonstrate that AI is really helpful and really adds value,” said Greg Corrado, a Google scientist. “It’s not just automation and cost savings and ChatGPT, right? This is a real problem.” Google has so far licensed three health care algorithms for detecting breast cancer, lung cancer and gene mutations. Another prominent Google initiative targets diabetic retinopathy, an eye condition affecting people with diabetes, which can cause blindness. The company has worked with sister firm Verily to develop a machine-learning algorithm to detect progressive blood vessel damage. It’s tested the technology in India and Thailand with promising results.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Washington, D.C. | Shawn Zeller This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. A new U.S. intelligence analysis released yesterday says Havana Syndrome, the mysterious medical condition first identified among U.S. diplomats in Cuba in 2016, might not be a syndrome after all. The U.S. initially suspected an attack by an acoustic device or directed energy and pulled diplomats out of Cuba and later China, as cases spread across the globe, with symptoms ranging from headaches to memory loss. The new assessment says U.S. spooks no longer think the ailments were the result of a foreign attack but more likely the result of preexisting medical conditions and the surrounding environment. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, your host Ruth talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the Department of Energy's finding that Covid-19 likely emerged from a Chinese lab accident, and how Republicans are eager to use the finding to lash out at the Chinese Communist Party and paint President Joe Biden as soft on Beijing. Listen to today's Pulse Check podcast THE REGULATORS The FTC is cracking down on companies that share customer health care data without telling them. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo The Federal Trade Commission is following through on its pledge to get tough with health care companies that share customer information with advertisers without the patients’ consent. The latest to feel the agency’s wrath is California-based telehealth firm BetterHelp, reports Ruth and POLITICO’s Josh Sisco. The agency slapped the online mental health provider with a $7.8 million fine for sharing personal data with advertisers after BetterHelp promised not to. The FTC’s principal power allows it to police unfair and deceptive practices. "This industry-standard practice is routinely used by some of the largest health providers, health systems, and healthcare brands," BetterHelp said in a prepared statement. "Nonetheless, we understand the FTC’s desire to set new precedents." The company said the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and that it did not share patients’ names or their clinical information with third parties. The case against BetterHelp is similar to one the agency brought last month against telehealth company GoodRx. In that matter, however, the agency said that in addition to unfair and deceptive practices, GoodRx violated its health breach notification rule, which requires companies to notify customers when unauthorized parties access their data. Still, the repercussions are similar. The FTC has banned GoodRx and BetterHelp from sharing personal consumer data with third parties for advertising purposes. The agency also had them claw back data shared with social media outfits like Facebook, Snapchat and online advertising firms such as Criteo. The number of companies in the FTC’s crosshairs for privacy violations is growing. Last year, the agency took action against data broker Kochava for selling information that could identify people who had been to an abortion clinic. In 2020, the commission settled with period tracking app Flo Health after it allegedly shared user health data with Facebook and Google despite telling customers it would keep that data private.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     FORWARD THINKING Harvard Medical School has YouTube classes now. | AP Continuing medical education is moving from the hotel ballroom to YouTube. Harvard Medical School is launching accredited continuing education classes on the video-sharing site. The aim is to reduce logistical hassles for doctors who need to meet licensing requirements. “Continuing medical education has been for many years doctors in hotel ballrooms clicking through PowerPoint slides,” said David Roberts, dean of external education at Harvard Medical School. “We know as educators, that’s just not a great way for people to learn.” Harvard has so far uploaded six classes, all largely related to diabetes. Viewers must take a test to claim credits.   Follow us on Twitter Ben Leonard @_BenLeonard_ Ruth Reader @RuthReader Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

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