Stop the privatization of health data

Wearable devices that track fitness are a rich source of real-time health data. Over the past year, technology titans including Google, Apple, Microsoft and IBM have been hiring leaders in biomedical research to bolster their efforts to change medicine. In September 2015, Tom Insel announced that he would quit his position as head of the US National Institute of Mental Health to join Google Life Sciences (now Verily). Three months later, Michael McConnell took a leave of absence from directing major cardiovascular research programmes at California's Stanford University to join him. And last month, Stephen Friend took a senior position with Apple.