Dive Brief:
- Verily, Google parent Alphabet’s life sciences arm, is recruiting 10,000 volunteers to help build a comprehensive database of biometric data.
- The Project Baseline study, described in a Wednesday blog on Verily’s website, will collect a broad range of data, including clinical, molecular, imaging, self-reported, behavioral, environmental, sensor and other heath-related information using Verily’s Study Watch and the Baseline mobile app.
- Verily said it is building an infrastructure capable of processing multidimensional data that can “serve as a single query source and may be used for more seamless data integration and collaboration.”
Dive Insight:
The announcement comes just days after Verily debuted its Study Watch, an encrypted device meant to collect health data for research purposes.
Tech giants have been dipping into healthcare in recent years, from IBM Watson Health’s partnership with Best Doctors to add Watson’s cancer suite to employee benefits packages and initiatives in artificial intelligence to Microsoft’s collaboration with Twist BioScience on DNA digital data storage.
Last year, Verily teamed with French drugmaker Sanofi to create tools for diabetes management. The company is also working with 3M on tools for population health. Project Baseline aims to create a Google Maps for human health gathering continuous insights into participants’ health and lives.
Verily is working with Duke University School of Medicine and Stanford Medicine on Baseline, and said it’s partnering with others in patient advocacy, academia, medicine, science, and engineering and design. “We recognize that we cannot achieve this vision in a solo,” the company said.
The data will be available to qualified researchers. Study participants will be able to receive certain health data and test results to share with their physician.