Smart watch pictured for comparison.
“We want to make it simple and automatic and not invasive.”
Chronic disease, two words that every person dreads to hear from the doctor. People are willing to spend their life savings to keep themselves alive. Google is hoping to allow you to prevent those dreadful visits through a new piece of tech that is currently in development.
Google’s product combines wearable technology with Nanoparticles: microscopic magnetic sensors that monitor the body from within the bloodstream. Essentially, an individual would take a pill orally that puts nanoparticles into his or her bloodstream. These nanoparticles are then monitored on a regular basis through a sensor that is worn on the wrist. The interaction of these two pieces of technology would enable detection of slight changes in the body’s overall chemistry. As continual data is gathered over time, ongoing trends in biochemical changes would allow the prediction of the onset of disease long before symptoms begin to occur. Currently, early detection and treatment of cancer is the most promising way to prevent fatality.¹
This has been the latest effort of the Google X Lab, a division of Google dedicated to making science fiction a reality. Google’s goal is to make early detection of cancer and fatal diseases simple and non-invasive. Andrew Conrad, the head of Life Sciences at Google X stated, “We want to make it simple and automatic and not invasive.”²
The technology is currently in the early development stages and unlikely to be released to the public any time soon, but it is loaded with promise. Currently, doctors are able to detect a wide variety of diseases through blood tests, however, the challenge is that they draw only a small sample and it doesn’t show minimal changes over time. This product has a chance an opportunity to change that way in which we monitor the body.
This development is aligned with our opinion article that we posted earlier this month about the promising potential of combining health and technology. Check out our article here