Slashdot Mirror
Google Developing a Pill To Detect Cancer
An anonymous reader writes: The Google X research lab has unveiled a new project: developing a pill capable of detecting cancer, imminent heart attacks, and other diseases. According to the article, "the company is fashioning nanoparticles—particles about one billionth of a meter in width—that combine a magnetic material with antibodies or proteins that can attach to and detect other molecules inside the body." When a person ingests the pill, these particles interact with the particular markers for a given disease. Since they're magnetic, they can then be guided back to a particular spot where they can be scanned to determine if any interactions took place. Google X's head of life sciences, Andrew Conrad, said, "What we are trying to do is change medicine from reactive and transactional to proactive and preventative. Nanoparticles... give you the ability to explore the body at a molecular and cellular level."
The pill transmits to a wrist sensor. Of course, that will transmit to an Android phone, which will upload the data to Google's servers. You'll need a Google account, of course. All that data will be available to you (and, of course, Google's "affiliates") via a newly reactivated Google Health.
My doctors don't believe in doing any tests that aren't indicated by an existing condition. Why cause concern if something is found? What about false positives? Is it going to cost a lot of money? Will insurance pay for it? Once a condition is diagnosed then insurance will pay for it but not before. Prventative medicine is not practices here.
You must not be in America. Here the doctor is sure to test your blood for cholesterol and write you a prescription for a statin, because that's what the drug reps tell them to do.