Google may be more known as an Internet giant but the company is active in other industries. It has heavily invested in several startups and fields that may not be exactly related to mobile or the Internet but takes advantage of different technologies in many ways. For one, it’s been working on a pair of smart contact lens that will hopefully help predict if a person is sick or has a certain disease.
The project is still underway but Alphabet, Google’s holding company, decided to give it its very own name. It is its own company now known as Verily which is actually the life sciences division of Google. The objective of this new arm is to continue several Google projects particularly these glucose-measuring contact lens. Such lens will try to analyze data based on big data and determine possible diseases if there’s any. Results will then be used in further advancement of bio-molecular nanotechnology and more.
Verily is a new business that brings together doctors, engineers, behavioral scientists, and chemists. They are “all working together to truly understand health and to better prevent, detect, and manage disease” as described. The partnership of these professionals are nothing new but Verily is now formal and official. This makes their mission more unified and defined than ever. It’s now an organized team that hopes to develop tools and diagnostics that would help the field of medicine or surgery.
It’s not an easy task but Google’s Verily is aimed to bring more functions to ordinary tech. The idea of smart contact lens is not just to correct the wearer’s vision but also to check and track his glucose levels. We’re not certain as to how Verily will do this but the scientists will make use of available data. Instead of having to get sample blood to check sugar level, the lens will then analyze data and try to understand the situation and offer solutions that may prevent or manage disease.
Verily is currently headed by Andy Conrad, Ph.D. He works with Jessica Mega, M.D., MPH as chief medical officer and Brian Otis, Ph.D. as CTO. The engineering team is headed by software engineer named Linus Upson.
VIA: SlashGear
SOURCE: Verily
