Ex-Google guys eye clinical trials with startup Flatiron

After their stints at Google, Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg have returned to their startup roots at Flatiron Health. The New York City startup emerged in recent months to heal healthcare woes with new software, and one area of interest on the group's radar is clinical trials.

As Business Insider reports, Turner and Weinberg left the web giant ($GOOG) in June to start Flatiron, after the success of their previous startup, Invite Media, which Google scooped up in 2010 for a cool $81 million. Neither Turner nor Weinberg has a bioscience or clinical background, but the engineers, who have seen family members battle cancer, have opened a dialogue with physicians, and smell some serious opportunities in healthcare.

Take clinical trials. Turner tells the business publication that his new group, while undecided about its first product, is looking into better ways for physicians to identify cancer patients for clinical trials. Even with biomarkers to identify qualified patients for such studies, he sees an opportunity to streamline the process.

It's early days for Flatiron, and Weinberg and Turner could decide to nix the clinical trials idea. Yet their venture into the unknown in healthcare makes for exciting prospects, and they seem to have the personal wealth to, at least early on, bankroll the expedition.

"Flatiron Health is either going to be a great success or a horrible failure," Turner tells Business Insider. "Hopefully we'll do well by doing good."

- get more from the BI piece

Like what you're reading

Click here to get more news delivered to your inbox every week>>