Chat with Heidi Dohse about Cloud in Healthcare (100 Days of Google Dev) - Coffee with a Googler Video Lecture | Coffee with a Googler - IT & Software

welcome to the Googleplex this is an
incredible place with lots of great
stuff being worked on every single day
before I worked here I always wondered
what it'd be like to come to the
Googleplex meet up with a Googler and
have coffee with them I just chat about
what they do how they do it and why they
do it and today we're going to do
exactly welcome to this episode of
coffee with a Googler I'm Laurence
Moroney and today we have a really
special show and if you only ever watch
one episode let it be this one cuz the
day we have a cloud developer advocate
called Heidi dose who's joining us and
Heidi's a whole lot more than just a
cloud developer advocate she's a really
inspirational woman with a great
background and a fabulous story but
before we get to that tell us all about
being a cloud developer advocate what do
you do so I'm on our Google cloud
platform team and I work with our cloud
product managers our sales team and our
engineering team to kind of figure out
what are we doing with cloud customer
needs and really how do we also connect
the dots internal to Google to leverage
what we're doing with the Google cloud
platform cool do you have a particular
favorite technology in cloud I'm an app
engine guy so what I'm really you know
intrigued with what we're doing is what
we're doing with our genomics platform
okay obviously I have a passion for how
do we change the you know that the
delivery in the future of healthcare so
the Google cloud platform is allowing us
to do some really interesting things and
talk with our Google life sciences team
who is doing some great research and
interesting projects and all of that
living on Google cloud platform along
with genomics and then just creating an
infrastructure that will allow other
companies to build their medical tools
and products on our service you've
mentioned genomics and medical tools and
products and I know you've got this
great background you used to be like a
competitive wind surfer and then life
happens so tell us about it well I did I
I grew up in a sports industry I was a
competitive wind surfer skier I played
multiple sports a variety of sports as a
child growing up
and then one day turns out I actually
was diagnosed with a really rare heart
arrhythmia and kind of had my engine
tweaked and next thing you know
technology became very important both on
the inside and the outside nice and then
one day you learn something about your
hearts I did I had one of those moments
and life that changes everything I was
18 years old and I was going in in
between seasons between ski season and
windsurfing season in order to have some
surgery on my knee to kind of clean up a
little bit of a mess I'd made in there
and I also had my first EKG as part of
the the pre-surgery pre-op so they they
did the they put all the little stickers
on me and the nurses there and this this
trip starts coming out of the machine
and her eyes get bigger and bigger and
and next thing you know the cardiologist
is there and it turns out that 270 beats
per minute it's not normal
Wow yeah and so I thought ah that's why
I couldn't count my pulse you know it's
so fast it was and my heart rate it
turns out would go up as high as 270 but
it would also go down at like 12 and 14
beats per minute so it was just really
irregular well so they there I am
healthy active 18 year old athlete and
they said no knee surgery we're sending
you off to the coronary care unit and
you're now going to become they start
this journey of the heart patient oh wow
so that led you to like lots of
pacemakers right you it did first it led
me to the I I spent a month in the
hospital while they tried to figure out
what to do with me they tried all kinds
of experimental drugs they tried to
figure out what it was that I had and I
ended up in the medical journals because
it's like well we found something new
and they said gee we're not sure why you
lasted as long as you did and we don't
know how long you'll be around and
there's not much more we can do for you
Wow
so I 18 that's got to be hard it was and
so I moved to Maui to windsurf because I
figured Business School was you know not
gonna be as necessary if I wasn't going
to be around very long and then the
following year I was in
to participate in an experimental
surgery and they electrocuted my AV node
which is the part of your heart that
coordinates the atrium and the ventricle
and makes it go to me and I became a
hundred percent pacemaker dependent okay
and that was 30 plus years ago Wow
so I have been on the cutting edge of
pacemaker technology for about 30 years
and I'm on my seventh one on your
seventh Ward seven Wow and and now it's
like you're not just sitting around with
this pacemaker you're doing pretty
extreme and intense sports with it
alright I am uh it's interesting because
you have a choice you can either be a
victim of your condition mmm or you can
figure out how to do really cool stuff
even though you've got to deal with it
so I had been it I was a professional
wind surfer when I had the first one put
in and I just I never considered myself
a heart patient I just figured it was a
girl with a bad electrical system and we
fixed it so I kept doing what I was
doing but those first heartbeats were
really clunky and kind of this big
cigarette pack of a battery in my chest
over the years that the heartbeats have
gotten smoother there's more sensors
built into the the pacemaker so every
time I get a new one I get new
technology just like everything else we
do the technology gets better
and when people ask gosh you know don't
you wish you could just get it and have
it stay in it's like no upgrade for me I
just think about getting a new phone for
the upgrades but Wow yeah yeah eggs
maker no I get new heart beats and then
the heart beats do more and in 2010 do
doubt the unintended consequences of
lots of surgeries I had to have
open-heart surgery and I decided to be a
competitive cyclist okay and that's when
this journey of extreme endurance sports
started it's not the usual thing people
goes like I had open-heart surgery so
I'm deciding to become a competitive
cyclist where did you make that
connection you know I because I had
grown up playing sports I I didn't want
to lose being me okay um and I just I
think I was
too stubborn to let heart issues take
the life that I really liked away right
so I just thought what the heck let's
see how much I can do okay that's that's
just pretty amazing now one of the
things is like to be able to cycle and
to enhance your ability to cycle you're
using technology right there's a lot of
sensors and the pacemaker and you're
using that to manage your health can you
tell us a little bit about how all of
that works sure so there is a couple of
things there's what happens you know
inside my chest with the pacemaker and
that is the pacemaker has a gyroscope it
has oxygen utilization muscle
stimulation electrical impulses it takes
all of this information and quickly
determines hey this is either you know a
tachycardia or oh it's actually exercise
and and it does a bit of machine
learning so that first 30 minutes of
something it's kind of taking all this
information in and saying okay great go
do what you need to do and so I'll you
know if I'm doing a mountain bike race
and I've got a you know two hour climb
in front of me right the heart my
pacemaker will know what's going on so
that's what's happening inside but it
can still be really scary just mentally
for me like how hard can I push before I
explode something right which I prefer
not to explode something yeah I can see
so now we have all these really great
wearable technologies we've got you know
between Mike exactly so you know I have
a you know performance athletes we've
had access to chest straps and like the
polar devices or Garmin has some some
things but because of my heart failure
medication and my pacemaker the chest
straps don't work okay so it took a long
time till we finally got to where they
have these optical light sensors okay so
mio global a couple different companies
make a really great risk-based heart
rate monitor that I use that I can then
determine you know when I'm cycling am i
safe am I in that realm that I need to
be and then also can I push harder what
more should I be doing and you know
that's how it's really important you
know to give me the confidence
as a heart patient to feel safe that I
can keep doing what I need to do and
then as an athlete am I getting the
performance that I should be getting can
I train harder how much harder can I
train right and now not just athletes
can benefit from this technology right
so just the average everyday person can
have a sensor and exactly and I found
you know this being a heart patient for
as many years as I've been and having to
deal with you know the initial surgery
new pacemakers being implanted
open-heart surgery you know heart
failure there's a lot of really scary
moments there's there's a you know these
times where it's like gosh you know is
my heart doing what it's supposed to be
doing you know should I just stay safe
get in the fetal position and lay on the
couch because you don't know what's
going on inside and with these devices
and these sensors and things I now have
that window inside of you know what's
happening so that makes me feel safer
and with that safety I'm more confident
and I'm less apt to have that anxiety
that starts to spin and then there's
like anxiety and the fear turns into
panic attacks and for anyone that's ever
had a panic attack you truly feel like
you're dying and that can oftentimes for
an individual and I've done it myself
that ends up being a trip to the
cardiologist or the emergency room there
you are consuming these really expensive
healthcare dollars because you're just
sure you're having a heart issue when
really you're kind of having a scary
issue and the sensors allow you to catch
that and stop that before it turns into
an issue right and they also what they
allow like the doctor to preempt instead
of like maybe you visiting monthly or
every three months or something that
they can take a look at your data
constantly and then they go I need to
see her now exactly so it would so two
things there is that in I can eliminate
having to go in for pacer checks as
often because my Boston Scientific
device has something called the latitude
communicator and it's a passive
interrogator
I can just have in my home it's
collecting data from my pacemaker and
sending it to my physician and they can
kind of look at that everything's
working as intended
you know big thumbs up if not if there's
actually an issue they can proactively
call me and say hey let's just check
that out
the other thing is that no one ever
found my heart issue until I went in for
something else because it never happens
when you're at the doctor's mm-hmm
now people have the ability to collect
more information on their health and if
they do see something that's going on
they can go to the their physician and
they can say see this event this is what
happened here's the actual data and
here's how I felt now it becomes
something that's actionable right and
you find things much quicker etcetra
etcetra that's and I just still find it
amazing though that despite all of this
despite this background that you've had
that you know these cycle races that you
do they're tough races
I saw the one in Vancouver you
effectively climbed the height of Mount
Everest
yes so a few days I just finished
it's called BC bike race and it's a
seven-day mountain bike stage race and
it's through some of the most technical
mountain biking in kind of the the north
vancouver whistler Squamish area kind of
the the the birth of mountain biking and
we did seven back-to-back days over
32,000 feet of climbing
that's the 200 yeah exactly and then
this last weekend I just did Leadville
stage race where we were doing climbs up
to over 12,500 feet in elevation Wow and
technology has made all of this possible
obviously you put your hard work in as
well but you know the technology has
been one of the enablers for you it is
without technology I couldn't be doing
what I'm doing without the improvement
in technology that the pacemaker company
does I wouldn't have the heartbeats and
without the technology that things like
our mobile devices
the sensors allow me as a heart patient
to be safe and as an athlete to have
more performance cool now you're a
developer advocate on the cloud platform
laughs are you bringing your cloud
skills to this so all this data is great
but how do you actually get it to the
right people right well it has to live
in the cloud so I look at what we're
doing with the Google cloud platform as
an enabling technology that will really
allow the future of digital health and
customized personal health to happen
because our Google cloud platform is
where the data can be ingested from the
devices from the doctor's office from
from the devices it can be analyzed and
then it can be made actionable and those
actionable bits can be delivered to a
healthcare professional researchers
individual patients and whoever needs to
use it Wow and we're really only getting
started we're just getting started so
it's a well thank you so much such an
inspirational story it's I mean I find
myself like hard to ride my bicycle on
my zero pacemaker and so just thanks for
the inspiration and I best of luck I
know you got some great races coming up
soon so hopefully we'll get to see a
little bit more of what you do in them
and we'll get to see a little bit more
of how you continue to use technology to
push the edge of you know how it can
make your life better as well as other
people's life better wonderful well
thank you so much so thanks everybody I
hope you really enjoyed the show as much
as I did Heidi's just such an
inspiration to me and it's making me get
up off the couch and ride my bike this
weekend thanks Heidi and if you have any
questions for me or if you have any
questions for Heidi please just leave
them in the comments below and if you
want to watch any more of the great
content that we have for Google
developers take a look at the Google
developers Channel