Tag Archives: Health

How AI can help in the fight against breast cancer

In 2020, there were 2.3 million people diagnosed with breast cancer and 685,000 deaths globally. Early cancer detection is key to better health outcomes. But screenings are work intensive, and patients often find getting mammogramsand waiting for results stressful.

In response to these challenges, Google Health and Northwestern Medicine partnered in 2021 on a clinical research study to explore whether artificial intelligence (AI) models can reduce the time to diagnosis during the screening process, narrowing the assessment gap and improving the patient experience. This work is among the first prospective randomized controlled studies for AI in breast cancer screening, and the results will be published in early 2023.

Behind this work, are scientists and researchers united in the fight against breast cancer. We spoke with Dr. Sunny Jansen, a technical program manager at Google, and Sally Friedewald, MD, the division chief of Breast and Women's Imaging at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, on how they hope this work will help screening providers catch cancer earlier and improve the patient experience.

What were you hoping to achieve with this work in the fight against breast cancer?

Dr. Jansen:Like so many of us, I know how breast cancer can impact families and communities, and how critical early detection can be. The experiences of so many around me have influenced my work in this area. I hope that AI can make the future of breast cancer screening easier, faster, more accurate — and, ultimately, more accessible for women globally.

So we sought to understand how AI can reduce diagnostic delays and help patients receive diagnoses as soon as possible by streamlining care into a single visit. For patients with abnormal findings at screening, the diagnostic delay to get additional imaging tests is typically a couple of weeks in the U.S.Often, the results are normal after the additional imaging tests, but that waiting period can be nerve-racking. Additionally, it can be harder for some patients to come back to get additional imaging tests, which exacerbates delays and leads to disparities in the timeliness of care.

Dr. Friedewald:I anticipate an increase in the demand for screenings and challenges in having enough providers with the necessary specialized training. Using AI, we can identify patients who need additional imaging when they are still in the clinic. We can expedite their care, and, in many cases, eliminate the need for return visits. Patients who aren’t flagged still receive the care they need as well. This translates into operational efficiencies and ultimately leads to patients getting a breast cancer diagnosis faster. We already know the earlier treatment starts, the better.

What were your initial beliefs about applying AI to identify breast cancer? How have these changed through your work on this project?

Dr. Jansen: Most existing publications about AI and breast cancer analyze AI performance retrospectively by reviewing historical datasets. While retrospective studies have a lot of value, they don’t necessarily represent how AI works in the real world. Sally decided early on that it would be important to do a prospective study, incorporating AI into real-world clinical workflows and measuring the impact. I wasn’t sure what to expect!

Dr. Friedewald:Computer-aided detection (CAD), which was developed a few decades ago to help radiologists identify cancers via mammogram, has proven to be helpful in some environments. Overall, in the U.S., CAD has not resulted in increased cancer detection. I was concerned that AI would be similar to CAD in efficacy. However, AI gathers data in a fundamentally different way. I am hopeful that with this new information we can identify cancers earlier with the ultimate goal of saving lives.

The research will be published in early 2023. What did you find most inspiring and hopeful about what you learned?

Dr. Jansen:The patients who consented to participate in the study inspired me. Clinicians and scientists must conduct quality real-world research so that the best ideas can be identified and moved forward, and we need patients as equal partners in our research.

Dr. Friedewald:Agreed! There’s an appetite to improve our processes and make screening easier and less anxiety-provoking. I truly believe that if we can streamline care for our patients, we will decrease the stress associated with screening and hopefully improve access for those who need it.

Additionally, AI has the potential to go beyond the prioritization of patients who need care. By prospectively identifying patients who are at higher risk of developing breast cancer, AI could help us determine patients that might need a more rigorous screening regimen. I am looking forward to collaborating with Google on this topic and others that could ultimately improve cancer survival.

Google Assistant offers information and hope for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It has been nearly 15 years since that otherwise ordinary Thursday afternoon when my mom came home with a diagnosis that would change our lives, irrevocably and forever: Stage II breast cancer. Despite the visceral and all-consuming fear that accompanies a cancer diagnosis, the oncologists reassured us hers was treatable, that she’d be there to dance at our weddings, that she’d live to grow old.

But she died instead.

Her cancer was too aggressive. She ran out of treatment options. Just two years after the word “cancer” cleaved our lives in half, she was gone — destroyed by a disease that could’ve been stopped had we just known sooner.

Unfortunately this experience — this painfully tragic, heartbreaking and circuitous trajectory — is shared by too many people. Every year, approximately 42,000 women in the U.S. die of breast cancer, and one of every eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with the disease over the course of her lifetime. These are women we love fiercely — our moms, sisters, friends, neighbors, daughters and leaders. And like my mom, for most of them — nearly 85% — this diagnosis comes with no family history whatsoever.

While we can’t stop the incidence of breast cancer, we know one thing is true: Early detection saves lives. Women who catch their cancers early — through regular screenings, checkups and mammograms — have a much higher chance of surviving. Of responding to treatments. Of living to meet their grandchildren.

That’s why, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’re sharing updates around how Google is helping. On top of our work building AI models that can improve the detection of breast cancer in screenings, we’re raising awareness about the importance of these checkups. For instance, we’re building features into products like Google Assistant to help people take early steps to protect themselves against breast cancer.

Breast cancer facts and resources on Assistant

Since more than 700 million people turn to Google Assistant every month as their go-to helper, it’s a great way to reach them in their everyday moments.

If you’re prone to putting off your checkups, just tell your Assistant, “Hey Google, set an annual reminder to get my breast exam on [date].” And if you say, “Hey Google, tell me about Breast Cancer Awareness Month” or “Give me a Breast Cancer Awareness fact” in the U.S., you’ll receive facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the critical importance of early detection and mammography in improving prognoses and saving lives. From here on out, you can always turn to Assistant as a fast and reliable source of this information, not just during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A graphic shows someone asking Google Assistant for a Breast Cancer Awareness fact, followed by a response referencing the CDC’s guidance to lower one’s risk of breast cancer.

To reach even more people, during the month of October we’re also sharing more information about breast cancer in response to some of the most common questions people ask their Assistant every day — including “What’s up?” and “How are you?” Give it a try today in the U.S. on your home or mobile device.

Like so many, I’ve learned firsthand that our lives can change in a single, ordinary moment — with the discovery of a tumor you pray is benign, a diagnosis for which you hope there is a cure, the fear that the person you love may not celebrate another birthday or live to become a grandmother. While breast cancer took my mom's life far too soon, I can think of no greater gift to share in her memory than the reminder for other women to detect and treat their diseases early. Before they’re too aggressive to cure. Before they can circumvent even the strongest treatments. Before it’s too late.

For the millions who use Google Assistant, we want to make this information as easy to find as a simple, “Hey Google, how are you?” And by doing that, provide something just as meaningful: a place to start, and a glimmer of hope.

How we’re using machine learning to understand proteins

When most people think of proteins, their mind typically goes to protein-rich foods such as steak or tofu. But proteins are so much more. They’re essential to how living things operate and thrive, and studying them can help improve lives. For example, insulin treatments are life-changing for people with diabetes that are based on years of studying proteins.

There is a world of information yet to discover when it comes to proteins — from helping people get the healthcare they need to finding ways to protect plant species. Teams at Google are focused on studying proteins so we can realize Google Health’s mission to help billions of people live healthier lives.

Back in March, we published apost about a model we developed at Google that predicts protein function and a tool that allows scientists to use this model. Since then, the protein function team has accomplished more work in this space. We chatted with software engineer Max Bileschi to find out more about studying proteins and the work Google is doing.

Can you give us a quick crash course in proteins?

Proteins dictate so much of what happens in and around us, like how we and other organisms function.

Two things determine what a protein does: its chemical formula and its environment. For example, we know that human hemoglobin, a protein inside your blood, carries oxygen to your organs. We also know that if there are particular tiny changes to the chemical formula of hemoglobin in your body, it can trigger sickle cell anemia. Further, we know that blood behaves differently at different temperatures because proteins behave differently at higher temperatures.

So why did a team at Google start studying proteins?

We have the opportunity to look at how machine learning can help various scientific fields. Proteins are an obvious choice because of the amazing breadth of functions they have in our bodies and in the world. There is an enormous amount of public data, and while individual researchers have done excellent work studying specific proteins, we know that we’ve just scratched the surface of fully understanding the protein universe. It’s highly aligned to Google’s mission of organizing information and making it accessible and useful.

This sounds exciting! Tell us more about the use of machine learning in identifying what proteins do and how it improves upon the status quo.

Only around 1% of proteins have been studied in a laboratory setting. We want to see how machine learning can help us learn about the other 99%.

It’s difficult work. There are at least a billion proteins in the world, and they’ve evolved throughout history and have been shaped by the same forces of natural selection we normally think of as acting on DNA. It’s useful to understand this evolutionary relatedness among proteins. The presence of a similar protein in two or more distantly related organisms (say humans and zebrafish) can be indicative that it’s useful for survival. Proteins that are closely related can have similar functions but with small differences, like encouraging the same chemical reaction but doing so at different temperatures. Sometimes it’s easy to determine that two proteins are closely related, but other times it's difficult. This was the first problem in protein function annotation that we tackled with machine learning.

Machine learning helps best when it truly helps, not replaces, current techniques. For example, we demonstrated that about 300 previously-uncharacterized proteins are related to “phage capsid” proteins. These capsid proteins can help us deliver medicines to the cells that really need them. We worked with a trusted protein database, Pfam, to confirm our hypothesis, and now these proteins are listed as being related to phage capsid proteins — for all the public to see — including researchers.

Back up a bit. Can you explain what the protein family database Pfam is? How has your team contributed to this database?

A community of scientists built a number of tools and databases, over decades, to help classify what each different protein does. Pfam is one of the most-used databases, and it classifies proteins into about 20,000 types of proteins.

This work of classifying proteins requires both computer models and experts (called curators) to validate and improve the computer models.

Graph showing how the Pfam region coverage over time, depicting that machine learning helped grow the database and add several years of progress.

We used machine learning to add classifications for human proteins that previously lacked Pfam classifications — helping grow the database and adding several years of progress.

Since the publication of your paper ‘Using deep learning to annotate the protein universe’ in June, what has your team been up to?

We’re focused on identifying more proteins and sharing that knowledge with the science and research community. At the end of July, we released more data jointly with Pfam. And this month we’re making Pfam data and Mgnify data, another database that catalogs microbiome data, available on Google Cloud Platform so more people can have access to it. Later this year, we’ll launch an initiative with UniProt, a prominent database in our field, to use language models to name uncharacterized proteins in UniProt. We’re excited about the progress we’re making and how sharing this data can help solve challenging problems.

Meeting global mental health needs, with technology’s help

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder, worldwide. During the global pandemic, the world saw a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression. There was even a corresponding spike in searches on Google for mental health resources — which is a trend that continues to climb each year. To help people connect with timely, life-saving information and resources and to empower them to take action on their mental health needs, teams of Googlers are working — inside and outside of the company — to make sure everyone has access to mental health support.

Connecting people to resources on Search and YouTube

Before we can connect people to timely information and resources, we need to understand their intent when they turn to Search. Earlier this year, we shared our goal to automatically and more accurately detect personal crisis searches on Google Search, with the help of AI. This week, we’re rolling out this capability across the globe. This change enables us to better understand if someone is in crisis, then present them with reliable, actionable information. Over the coming months, we’ll work with partners to identify national suicide hotlines and make these resources accessible in dozens more languages.

Beyond the immediate needs related to mental health crises, people want information along their mental health journey no matter what it looks like — including content that can help them connect with others with similar experiences. To better support these needs, YouTube recently launched its Personal Stories feature, which surfaces content from creators who share personal experiences and stories about health topics, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, bipolar disease, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This feature is currently available in the U.S., with plans to expand it to more regions and to cover more health issues.

Scaling an LGBTQ+ helpline to support teens around the world

Mental health challenges are particularly prevalent in the LGBTQ+ youth community, with 45% of LGBTQ+ youth reporting that they have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. Since 2019, Google.org has given $2.7 million to support the work of The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ+ young people. With the help of a technical team of Google.org Fellows, The Trevor Project built an AI system that could identify and prioritize high-risk contacts while simultaneously reaching more LGBTQ+ young people in crisis.

Today, we’re granting $2 million to The Trevor Project to help them to scale their digital crisis services to more countries, starting with Mexico. With this funding, they will continue to build and optimize a platform to help them more quickly scale their life-affirming services globally. In addition, we’ll provide volunteer support from Google’s AI experts and $500,000 in donated Search advertising to help connect young people to these valuable resources. The Trevor Project hopes that this project will help them reach more than 40 million LGBTQ+ young people worldwide who seriously consider suicide each year.

Using AI-powered tools to provide mental health support for the veteran community

That’s not the only way The Trevor Project has tapped AI to help support their mission. Last year, with the help of Google.org Fellows, they built a Crisis Contact Simulator that has helped them train thousands of counselors. Thanks to this tool, they can increase the capacity of their highly trained crisis counselors while decreasing the human effort required for training.

Now we’re supporting ReflexAI, an organization focused on building AI-powered public safety and crisis intervention tools, to develop a similar crisis simulation technology for the veteran community. The Department of Veteran Affairs reports that more than 6,000 veterans die by suicide each year. ReflexAI will receive a team of Google.org Fellows working full-time pro bono to help the organization build a training and simulation tool for veterans so they can better support each other and encourage their peers to seek additional support when needed.

Perhaps the most potent element of all, in an effective crisis service system, is relationships. To be human. To be compassionate. We know from experience that immediate access to help, hope and healing saves lives. SAMHSA
(Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Admin.)

When it comes to mental health, the most important path forward is connection. AI and other technologies can provide timely, life-saving resources, but the goal of all these projects is to connect people to people.

Note: Source for SAMSA quote

Take a wellbeing break, and dive into the Rhythm Of Nature

This World Mental Health Day, we’d like to help people experience a moment of calm with the latest experiment from Google Arts & Culture Lab, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab, and Google’s Wellbeing Lab.

In Rhythm Of Nature is a digital wellbeing experience inspired by the Carl Linnaeus Flower Clock. Linneaus was a renowned 18th century botanist and taxonomist who developed a modern system to identify, name, and classify living things. His unique garden designs captured the natural circadian rhythms of different plants that would open and close their blooms in relation to the time of the day.

In Rhythm With Nature aims to establish an intimate connection between humans and nature through a series of beautifully crafted breathing exercises timed by the flowers opening and closing. Essentially you are breathing with flowers that open according to your time of the day.

As Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab describes the experiment, “Like our plant friends, humans also respond to changes in the environment through a circadian rhythm. This 24-hour internal clock seated in the brain helps to regulate our sleep-wake cycle. [...] Exposure to the natural world can boost our moods, lessen anxiety, promote physical activity, and even improve interactions with our neighbors [...] Biophilic design considers the restorative benefits of nature and incorporates nature experiences into our environment, both physical and virtual. That’s right—even simulations of nature, such as videos featuring natural landscapes or immersive VR experiences, have been shown to reduce physiological and psychological signs of stress. These virtual options make nature and its benefits more accessible when you can’t easily enjoy the great outdoors.”

Artist Anna Glover has handcrafted the flower scenarios, which were later brought to life into a gaming engine, enabling users to interact and breathe with the flowers. The psychology of colors in the flower clock reflects people’s energy levels throughout the day. The soundscapes follow the Circle of Fifths, a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths, with a soothing effect on the mind.

Experience a moment of calm, by connecting to the Rhythm Of Nature. As a bonus, check our In The Rhythm of Nature playlist on YouTube to find 13 videos of one hour meditations based on the experiment.

Recovery, community and healing on the job at Google

Just shy of a year ago, I can still vividly remember scanning The Keyword and coming across the headline, “How my recovery community helps keep me sober.”

Fresh out of grad school, I had been working at Google for just three months and I had been in recovery for almost three years. It was the first time in my life I wasn’t using drugs and alcohol to cope with the stresses and insecurities of work. Before I found recovery, I thought I owed my academic and professional successes to substance abuse. I drank and used drugs “to relax,” make friends and numb the chronic depression that immobilized me otherwise. Frankly, I didn’t know if I was cut out for Google on my own.

Finding hope through community

When I opened that link and read about Google’s Recover Together website — which includes a searchable map to find nearby recovery groups and support resources for people and their families — let alone featuring an actual Googler in recovery, I knew I was in the right place. Addiction is still too often shamed and silenced, so it’s all the more commendable for a company like Google to use its technology, finances and branding capital to bring resources to the millions of people impacted.

The compassion and dignity of that story made me feel hopeful that I could make it at Google clean and sober – but I realized I may not have to do it “on my own.” After some searching, I found that Google's Disability Alliance Employee Resource Group had a dedicated group for those in recovery from any form of addiction. I had already been taking advantage of individual counseling through Google’s Employee Assistance Program, but for me there is nothing like building community to support healing. Over the past year, the recovery group has supported me through onboarding, battling imposter syndrome and other work-related experiences that would have previously sent me searching for solace at the bottom of a bottle.

We do recover – together

It’s difficult to express gratitude for the vulnerability, courage and wisdom the recovery community has brought into my life. Part of that is why I’m so excited to amplify my personal impact and be a part of the group working this year to host a slew of events for National Recovery Month.

On September 7, Google’s internal recovery group hosted an event embodying what recovery awareness and advocacy is all about: showing up, speaking up and standing up over and over and over again. This featured a stop from Mobilize Recovery Across America’s cross country tour and representatives from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Attendees shared personal stories of addiction and recovery, tips to ensure events are inclusive (like providing non-alcoholic options), information of where to dispose of prescription drugs properly, and tangible resources of how to help someone find recovery treatment or access immediate assistance (like the 988 crisis lifeline). To conclude the evening, the Google campus was lit up purple, the official color for Recovery Month.

Mobilize Recovery bus parked next to Google campus, lit purple in celebration of recovery month

Hilary Swift for Mobilize Recovery

This month, Google added new personal recovery stories, including mine, to its Recover Together site to inspire hope and combat stigma. U.S. trends and data tell us this is needed more now than ever. Comparing January-September of 2021 to the same date range in 2022, Google’s U.S. based searches for "AA meeting locator" and “addiction treatment near me” increased by 350% and 85% respectively. Further, a national study by the Pew Research Center reports that nearly half of Americans have a family member or friend impacted by addiction, with a fairly even distribution by political party, gender and other markers of identity. My hope is that videos and stories like mine will help others feel less alone. I hope it helps people find a way to join me and the other 25 million Americans thriving in long-term recovery.

Whether you’re just beginning your journey, or well along the path, know that recovery is possible. We do not have to self-medicate in the shadows. My experience has taught me that the more we open up and reach out, the easier it all becomes.

Visit g.co/recovertogetherto find recovery support groups in your area, and check out mobilizerecovery.org/for more information.

Our work toward health equity

As a physician and an academic, I’ve worked with communities that have historically experienced health inequalities due to factors like where they live, what their income is and how they identify. And I’ve seen firsthand how technology can connect individuals to critical information and tools that help them manage their health and help health care providers expand access to care for them.

Today, I lead a team at Google focused on making sure our research, products and technologies can help billions of people live healthier lives — especially the communities that have historically been underserved by healthcare.

This week, we’re hosting our annual Google Health Equity Summit. This event brings together researchers, policymakers, health equity experts and more from both inside and outside of Google to discuss pressing health equity issues. We’ll also share updates on how we’re helping billions of people be healthier. Here are a few highlights:

Connecting people to care that’s right for them

Information is a determinant of health, and bridging information gaps can help foster more equitable care. People from all over the world use Google products and services to find information about their health needs and questions. We work to make sure everyone can access authoritative information that is relevant and actionable based on those needs.

Search features help people easily access care that’s right for them — from showing appointment availability to finding in-network care options. We’ve updated our search experience to make it easier to navigate U.S. government benefits programs, like Medicaid which covers one in four people including about half of all children in the U.S.

A screenshot showing the new Search feature. The information for 'BadgerCare Plus' in Wisconsin is pulled up, and includes a list of 'Local and national resources' that lists links to that include information on eligibility and how to apply for Medicaid in Wisconsin, along with a link to download the application form. It also includes 'Support phone numbers' such as the general help line for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

In the coming weeks, when you search for Medicare and Medicaid plans, you’ll see additional information about eligibility requirements and the enrollment process. For those enrolled in Medicaid, you’ll also be able to filter nearby healthcare providers that accept Medicaid, alongside an existing filter for Medicare — making it easier to find doctors who accept your plan.

Screenshot of the search results for the query 'doctors near me', with the new feature that allows you to filter for doctors that accept Medicare and Medicaid. In the upper left corner of the Map, you can select a bubble that says 'Medicare/Medicaid' to filter the results.

People also turn to YouTube looking for answers to their health questions and to find online communities where they can connect about shared health issues and needs. To boost the quality of information and access to authoritative health content, we’ve launched product features and established partnerships over the past few years.

Today, YouTube is rolling out THE-IQ – Tackling Health Equity through Information Quality, a program in partnership with Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) that brings together organizations supporting underrepresented and under-resourced communities. YouTube and KFF will provide resources, such as seed funding and video production expertise, toThe Loveland Foundation, the National Birth Equity Collaborative and the Health Equity Leadership & Exchange Network at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute to help them reach more people on YouTube around important topics like mental health, maternal care and health access.

Extending resources and technologies to support community work

In addition to building health equity within our products, we have an equally important role to support work happening in the broader health community.

Last year, we debuted the Fitbit Health Equity Research Initiative to offer Fitbit and Fitabase resources and technologies to researchers studying the impact of health disparities and possible solutions. Awardees included those working on Black maternal, fetal and postpartum health, transgender youth sleep health, diabetes and cardiovascular health within Latino communities, and adolescent health and wellbeing.

This year, we’re expanding the program to further support groups disproportionately impacted by health disparities. Researchers at academic institutions and nonprofit research organizations in the U.S. are invited to submit their health equity research proposals to the Google Health Equity Research Initiative (HERI) for the chance to win Fitbit devices and Premium, Google Cloud credits or funding. With support from Fitabase, these researchers may also be eligible to win access to remote data collection and analysis tools. Learn more about eligibility and how to apply to this year’s HERI.

There are no shortcuts to achieving health equity. Google is committed for the long term to building and maintaining trust with communities who can benefit from our products.

To hear more about our work, tune in to the Google Health Equity Summit live stream at 10 a.m. PST on Monday September 12 or watch the recap on our event site.

Ask a Techspert: How does a building become “water positive”?

Our new Bay View campus is on track to be the largest development project in the world to achieve Water Petal certification from the Living Building Challenge, meaning it will meet the definition of being “net water positive.” That important sustainability effort moves us closer to our 2030 company goal of replenishing more water than we consume. But what exactly does “water positive” mean at Bay View? District Systems Water Lead Drew Wenzel dove into that question head first.

Let’s get right to it: What does “water positive” mean?

“Water positive” at Bay View means we will produce more non-potable water than we have demand for at the Bay View site.

Hmm, let’s back up: What’s non-potable water again?

There are a couple of types of water. There is potable water, which is suitable for human contact and consumption, and there is non-potable water, which is not drinking quality but can be used for other water demands like flushing toilets or irrigation.

Typically, buildings use potable water for everything. At Bay View, we have an opportunity to match the right quality of water with the right demand, and only use potable water when it's necessary. And by over-producing non-potable water, we can share such excess with surrounding areas that might otherwise rely on potable water for non-potable needs.

So basically, are we helping the water system save high-quality water?

Right. In California, we’re years into our most recent drought. We're only going to see increasing pressure on water resources. Regional and State water agencies are working hard to secure the potable water supply. We believe we can best support these public-sector efforts and increase potable water supply by using non-potable water where we can.

So how did we get to water positive for Bay View?

This may be surprising, but it actually all starts with the geothermal energy system. Typically, removing heat from a building is done through evaporating a lot of water via cooling towers. At Bay View, instead of doing that, the geothermal system removes almost all heat by transferring it into the soil beneath the building. This system eliminates at least 90% of the water needed for cooling, or about 5 million gallons of water per year.

Ok, we start by reducing water use. What’s next?

After improving the water efficiency as much as we could through the geothermal system and other measures, we looked at the water resources we have on site. By collecting all of our stormwater and wastewater and treating it for reuse, we are able to meet all of our onsite non-potable demands.

How do we treat it?

Stormwater treatment starts with the retention ponds that collect rain. Water from these ponds is slowly drawn down and pumped to a central treatment plant, where it goes through several stages of filtration, treatment and disinfection.

All of the wastewater — from our cafes, restrooms and showers — is collected and sent to the central plant, where it undergoes two stages of filtration and treatment. From there, the water goes out to a field of reeds that naturally pull out nutrients, creating a perennial green landscape that supports local wildlife. Finally, the water is sent back to the plant again for final treatment and disinfection.

The final output from both stormwater and wastewater treatment processes is recycled water that meets State regulations for non-potable use.

A technical diagram shows stormwater and wastewater moving from an office building into a central treatment plant for filtration, treatment and disinfection. The wastewater is sent to a green landscape for additional treatment before returning to the plant. From the central plant, recycled water is returned to the building.

What happens if we don’t have enough non-potable water at any given time?

If our recycled water tank doesn’t have enough non-potable water to meet campus needs, it will fill up with potable water. At that point, everything in the tank would be considered non-potable because it has been mixed. Again, this isn’t the best use of high-quality potable water, and it’s something we’ll work to avoid.

If we create extra non-potable water, how can we share it?

This is something we’re thinking through, and there are a few ways we could go about it. The easiest way would be to export it to adjacent properties for irrigation to water something like a baseball field. That would require a relatively minimal effort of adding pipes.

Another way would involve potentially working with a local municipality that has a recycled water system, creating additional redundancy and resiliency within that system.

Aside from sharing extra water, Bay View already helps by treating and reusing its own water instead of adding demands to municipal systems. That leaves capacity on the system for the rest of the community and allows water providers to focus their time and resources on other needs across the water system.

Thinking beyond Bay View, is “water positive” important in places that aren’t in a drought?

Definitely. There are many cities that have combined sewer and stormwater systems that can be overwhelmed by excess water from buildings or large storm events. That can cause back-ups and flooding into the streets. Water positive systems, like the one at Bay View, can help communities and developers avoid placing additional pressure on municipal water systems.

Can any development site be water positive?

While a system like Bay View’s might not make sense for every project, there are different scales and variations of onsite water capture, treatment and reuse that are valuable, even if a building doesn't get to official water positive status. Every little bit is going to help.

Dr. Von Nguyen’s temperature check on public health

Dr. Von Nguyen’s career centers around helping people be healthier. As a primary care physician and epidemiologist, he’s worked in sub-Saharan Africa and India, developed policies for U.S. government agencies, and led health strategy for Blue Cross North Carolina. Dr. Nguyen joined Google in 2021 as the clinical lead for public and population health. We chatted with him to learn about his work in public health and his team’s next focus: climate change.

What drew you to working in public health?

When I was in medical school, I received a Fulbright Fellowship and worked on HIV/AIDS and malaria in Kisumu, Kenya. I was able to move beyond individual patient care to serving entire communities through educational campaigns about HIV/AIDS and distributing insecticide-treated bed nets. This experience opened my eyes to how people in other parts of the world live, and I knew I wanted my career to focus on making a difference in the health of populations globally.

Fast forward to today, what does your role at Google focus on?

As the clinical lead for population health, I work closely with our product teams to help improve the health of communities. One of those teams is focused on public and environmental health, so they look at how factors in a community like air quality, extreme weather events, or availability of green spaces and healthcare services impact health and wellbeing.

Our public and environmental health team played a huge role in Google’s COVID-19 response. What were some of the biggest lessons learned?

During COVID-19, it quickly became clear technology has an important role to play in the public health response. People turn to Google every day for information, so we need that information to be trustworthy and actionable. Throughout the pandemic, our teams helped support individuals, researchers, and policymakers with data, tools, and funds.

Through this work, people were easily able to find trustworthy information on Search, YouTube and Maps, like vaccine side effects or their nearest testing site. Public health and academics used aggregated Search trends on symptoms and vaccines to better understand the pandemic and concerns within communities. Organizations used our mapping capabilities to help public health officials identify “vaccine deserts” where people had little or no convenient access to vaccinations.

For me, the biggest lesson learned was: Think globally, act locally. While communities all over the world used Search to learn about scientific advances with mRNA vaccines, individuals also used Search to find where they could get a vaccine. With our Access to Vaccines dataset in partnership with Ariadne Labs at Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital, we needed to think about more than where sites were located, and account for community habits and modes of transportation to assess how easy it would be to reach a site.

What other public health challenges are top of mind?

My team and I are thinking a lot about the health implications of climate change, and how we can contribute to research and interventions. We’re beginning to see patterns and associations between climate, weather and health. Air pollution, for example, can be extremely hazardous, and is linked to chronic diseases and even cancer. Floods can cause injuries, hypothermia, infection, and healthcare resource constraints, impacting communities almost instantly. Globally, Google Search interest in heat wave, heat stroke and heat exhaustion reached record highs in July this year.

I’m asking myself, how can we provide information to scientists and policymakers that helps them address the issue globally, while also helping individuals act locally? Things like helping people find nearby public spaces — like libraries or community centers — to take refuge from the heat; or helping cities create better access to parks and green spaces that provide shade, lower temperatures and contribute to cleaner air.

How does this relate to Google’s existing sustainability work?

Addressing climate change is a top priority for Google, and we’ve made deep investments in reducing our own emissions, plus arming our partners with sustainability data and tools. We’re using machine learning to help forecast floods and alert communities before a flood reaches their area, and offering organizations a tool called Google Cloud Carbon Footprint to measure and manage their gross carbon emissions.

What is Google doing to help at the intersection of climate change and health?

Google already provides data to over 42,000 cities to help them make climate action plans. Air Quality Insights and Tree Canopy lab can help cities better plan to provide shade and prepare for extreme heat events. I’m excited to build on this existing work and apply our tools to help reduce harmful health impacts.

Extreme heat is affecting many communities globally right now, so we’re working on several pilots to explore how we can help. One way that we think we can be helpful is by providing data and insights to local governments to better understand their communities' needs during extreme heat events. Our work will focus on learning how we can best support cities as they develop response plans and new interventions.

Let’s face it — Google is one part of a much larger ecosystem to improve the public’s health. Looking ahead, my team and I are identifying ways to bring Google’s strengths to policymakers, scientists and consumers in their hunt for useful information to improve public health.

Suicide prevention resources on Google Search

Three out of four people in the United States come to the internet first with questions about their health and wellness. The pandemic has exacerbated the need for high-quality, timely and actionable health information — in fact, since 2020, people are searching for “mental health hotline” twice as much as they did before. On Search, we work to connect people in crisis situations to reliable support as quickly as possible.

Today, when you search for information about suicide prevention in the U.S., you’ll find a new, easy-to-remember hotline number and chat support at the top of your search results. We’ve updated this to reflect the new national mental health crisis hotline number, 988. Services are provided by the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a network of more than 200 state and local call centers funded by the U.S. Department of Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Suicide is a leading cause of death among people of all ages globally. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the second-leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10-14 and 25-34 in the U.S. While Google has included suicide prevention information at the top of relevant search results for many years, this new hotline will make it easier for people in emotional distress and seeking mental health support to get help.

A smartphone screen showing the 988 hotline on Google Search.

With search interest in mental health resources reaching record highs this year, 988 provides a critical lifeline for those in need. "Hope has a new number, and it's 988," says Dr. John Draper, Executive Director of 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. "This is a historic moment in our country's approach to mental health. When people call or text 988, they will be connected to trained counselors who will hear them, support them and connect them to resources. With this transition to 988, our hope is to reach so many more people in emotional crisis, and connect them to care."

Four graphs showing search interest in mental health topics — “mental health therapist,” “mental health help,” “free mental health services” and “mental health counseling” — on the rise.

For over a decade, we’ve worked closely with crisis support providers to help people navigate topics like suicide, substance use disorders and domestic violence. In addition to returning helpful information from reliable sources for related queries, we work with local suicide crisis partners to surface high-quality information around the world. Beyond the U.S., suicide hotlines are available in dozens of countries and we recently expanded the feature to Costa Rica, Pakistan and Belgium. We’ll continue working to bring this feature to even more countries.

People come to Google looking for information in critical moments, and access to high-quality information is crucial to helping them navigate those moments safely. Providing hotline resources is one way we’re continuing to help people stay safe while they search.

Source: The Keyword