Over more than a decade we’ve known Google as a search engine, but Google is not just a search engine which answers your queries, it’s more than that. Google offers various products that include YouTube, Google+, Gmail, Google Maps and much more. Google has already covered all the sectors of Information Technology, and now Google is growing beyond that. There are so many projects that are running under the hood of Google like the Self-driving car, Project Loon, and Energy kite. Google’s mission is to organize the world of Information, and now that will include our DNA information too. In 2014, Google launched a new cloud computing service called Google Genomics which will store patients DNA data in a cloud, which can be used to analyze different diseases. Google has teamed up with Stanford Medicine and will launch a Clinical Genomics Service this fall. Google will be providing cloud storage to Stanford Medicine to store data.
“The overall premise of what we’re doing is to combine the two worlds of data science and life science in a way that makes a difference,” says Google Genomics’ David Glazer in an interview with FastCompany. Stanford Medicine has signed an agreement with Google to ensure the privacy and security of this sensitive health information that will be stored on Google’s cloud platform. This data will be used to compare and to improve the treatment of cancer patients as well as to diagnose children with genetic diseases. Stanford Medicine will also provide this genomic data to the hospitals to prevent patients from getting sick in the first place, and to help doctors to diagnose and treat the disease correctly.
Stanford Medicine dean Lloyd B. Minor said: “We want to be seen as leaders in determining how genomic data when combined with other data, is able to predict when we’re more prone to developing the disease.” And according to Minor, it’s now possible to sequence a patient’s whole genome as it’s getting cheaper and cheaper, day-by-day. Stanford with Google also researching a way to use machine learning technology to assist radiologists in making diagnoses, such as tumors, from medical scans. “Digital technology can bring us an incredible amount of information about our health,” minor said.