Devices & Diagnostics, BioPharma

What Mark Zuckerberg told Dr. Eric Topol about his interest in healthcare

Dr. Eric Topol, the digital health evangelist and cardiologist at Scripps, offers a tantalizing look into what the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and medical philanthropist, cares about in healthcare.

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The world of medical philanthropy got a big shot in the arm when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced in September that they were committing $3 billion to “cure, prevent or manage all disease” by the end of the century.

While that is a benefit to researchers, a tantalizing tidbit of information that Dr. Eric Topol shared at the Techonomy Health conference at Half Moon Bay, California on Wednesday, shows that Zuckerberg has more than medical philanthropy in mind. He appears to be also interested in investing in novel technology and, indeed, also be an early adopter himself.

Dr. Topol, of course, is a renowned cardiologist, author and a tech evangelist championing the disruption of medicine and healthcare to better serve patients. But his day job is at the Scripps Translational Science Institute, where he is director. He also is professor of genomics at the Scripps Research Institute.  In March 2013, Topol appeared on the Stephen Colbert Show on Comedy Central and talked about microsensors inside patient’s bodies that could sense an impending heart attack and issue an alert in advance.

He explained a bit more about that technology to the Techonomy audience Wednesday.

“It’s a nanosensor put into the bloodstream that can sense a heart attack days or couple of weeks before it actually happened,” Topol explained. “We have a gene signature, we have a sensor and now we have to go through clinical and regulatory issues to prove it.”

It may sound like science fiction but Qualcomm is supporting that project, Topol said. And when Topol had a conversation with Zuckerberg about it, the tech entrepreneur was intrigued.

“Mark wanted one implanted. He said, ‘It’s really cool’ and ‘It’s neat’ and he wanted us to come and talk to him and tell him when it’s ready,” Topol said.

He added that the two had a great discussion.

“I never could finish a sentence because he would say “Got it” just before I got halfway through,” Topol recalled as the audience broke out in laughter.

Topol said that Zuckerberg also made an interesting offer about the nanosensor.

“He thought it was terrific and said to me … that if you quit your current position and work on this full time, I’d like to invest in it,” to which Topol replied, “I am not going to do that.”

Topol may not be taking up Zuckerberg’s offer, but at least this exchange provides a window into what Zuckerberg finds interesting in healthcare.

Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

 

 

 

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