Join the disruptors of health science (Nature):
Thomas R. Insel’s biggest lesson from his shift from NIMH director to Silicon Valley entrepreneur: academic and technology company researchers should partner up.
“In early 2015, I testified with several other National Institutes of Health (NIH) directors at an annual hearing held by the US Senate. It was my 13th and final year as director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland. What struck me most was how the harsh fiscal reality tempered the passionate bipartisan support for the NIH. As one senator noted, with a federal deficit of nearly US$500 billion, there was little hope of any significant increase in funding.
Six months after that hearing, I left the NIH for Silicon Valley, first working at Verily in South San Francisco, California, a health-science spin-off formed by Google’s parent company Alphabet. Since May, I’ve been president and co-founder of a start-up called Mindstrong Health in Palo Alto, California. I’ve witnessed the tremendous possibilities that immense resources, massive computing power and the application of data science can bring to biomedical research. I’ve watched some of today’s best junior faculty members and postdocs launch their careers in Silicon Valley instead of in academic departments. And I’ve wondered how technology giants and start-ups will change biomedical and health-care research.
These companies have transformed the worlds of information, entertainment and commerce. But by moving into health care, they face some formidable challenges. In my view, solving them will require deep partnerships between technology companies, clinical experts, patient advocates and academic scientists.” Keep reading Dr. Insel’s article over at Nature.
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We are proud to share that Dr. Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and currently a co-founder and President of Mindstrong Health, will speak at at the 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (December 5–7th). From 2002–2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) committed to research on mental disorders. Most recently (2015 – 2017), he led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) in South San Francisco, CA. Dr. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.
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Learn more & Reserve your Spot HERE
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