Google and American Heart Association Pool Together $50 Million to Uncover Drivers of Heart Disease

Twitter summary: AHA and Google team up to better understand heart disease

Google Life Sciences and the American Heart Association (AHA) recently announced a $50 million, five-year research collaboration to uncover the drivers of heart disease. Each organization has committed $25 million, and in early 2016, a joint leadership group will select a team leader to run the multi-year research effort. This team leader – “who may be a cardiologist but could come from any background or area of expertise” – will receive the full $50 million in funding to design a program, assemble a cross-functional group of investigators, and lead all efforts to find new causes and drivers of coronary heart disease.

The announcement notes that “technology has a critical role to play” in this initiative, and Google Life Sciences’ expertise in sensors and data analytics will be key in the research collaboration. “This is the No. 1 killer in the world, and we should shake it up a bit,” said Google Life Sciences CEO Dr. Andy Conrad in the Wall Street Journal.

This marks the largest one-time research investment in AHA’s history, serving as a testament to the faith in Google Life Sciences to help move the needle on understanding heart disease. For Google Life Sciences, this follows diabetes partnerships with Novartis (smart contact lens), Dexcom (next-generation CGM), and Sanofi (better sensors and software). See our recent coverage of Google Life Science’s CEO Dr. Andy Conrad’s commentary on Google’s commitment to diabetes here. –AB/KC