The problem with Silicon Valley medicine

Modern medicine has been shaped by technology, but there’s no guarantee that the newest iteration of a medical therapy or device will be an improvement. We are frequently susceptible to novelty bias, the belief that something new is superior to what preceded it. Yet unlike the rapid evolution of our computers and smartphones, the history of medicine is littered with exciting new technologies that turned out to be less effective than first hoped.The immensely lucrative biotech sector is where two contrasting mentalities interact. Tech innovators claim that medicine is a slow moving, Luddite industry in desperate need of disruption, whereas many working in healthcare suggest that Silicon Valley’s unofficial motto of “move fast and break things” is entirely the wrong model when people’s lives are at stake.Tech giants like Google and Amazon owe their primacy to their mastery of data, and the same faith in data—as a means to unlock…
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