Alphabet’s Verily Health Unit Takes On the Opioid Epidemic
Alphabet Inc.’s health-care unit Verily plans to partner with hospitals in Ohio on a tech-heavy approach to treating people with substance-abuse disorders.
Verily said on Tuesday that it will help launch an independent nonprofit called OneFifteen that plans to set up an addiction-treatment facility in Dayton with housing and a behavioral health treatment center.
The idea is to apply Verily’s data-centric approach to addiction, using analytics to improve care by gleaning insight over time from operational and clinical data. Samaritan Behavioral Health Inc., a subsidiary of Premier Health, will work with Verily to provide clinical care for the project. Kettering Health Network is also a partner.
“A team of Verily clinicians, engineers, and health systems specialists undertook an assessment of the opioid crisis and uncovered a complex set of challenges that touched nearly every facet of our society,’’ Verily said in a blog post. “We recognized that a common thread through these challenges was the absence of high quality information to guide individuals, communities, and legislators to adopt treatment models that they are confident will support prevention and recovery.’’
The new facility in Dayton will begin seeing patients this spring. A full health-care campus is expected to be completed in 2020.
Google parent Alphabet has explored eradicating mosquito-borne disease, artificial-intelligence applications for health care and the molecular mechanisms of aging. The company has hired former Geisinger Health Chief Executive Officer David Feinberg to oversee Google Health.