Alphabet’s most ambitious health projects

Thomas Peter | Reuters

A man walks past the brand logo of Alphabet Inc’s Google outside its office in Beijing, China, August 8, 2018. 

Alphabet’s Verily unit said on Wednesday that’s it taking on the opioid crisis, joining with two health networks to build a tech-infused rehab campus in Dayton, Ohio.

Verily is one of Alphabet’s “Other Bets,” and marks its most advanced effort in the health-care market. But long before Alphabet was created as the parent company of Google and its side projects in 2015, the internet giant was dabbling in health. In 2008, there was the launch of Google Health, a site that failed because consumers weren’t willing to upload their personal data.

Far from being deterred, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have doubled down on health, investing in a variety of different ventures. Calico, part of the Other Bets segment, is focused on anti-aging research.

Some of this stuff is pretty wild and very risky. One project — a glucose sensing contact lens — has already shut down because the technology didn’t ultimately work. Others are already selling to customers. Employees expect the volatility and, as we learned in Alphabet’s earnings report this week, Alphabet treats Other Bets like start-ups, issuing equity in a way that’s not strictly tied to the value of publicly traded Alphabet shares.

Here are five of the more ambitious health-care efforts that Alphabet is undertaking: