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If you're an engineer who wants to make the vision Steve paints into a reality--but for everybody, not just for Apple Watch owners--I'd love to talk with you.

If you're an engineer who wants to make the vision Steve paints into a reality--but for everybody, not just for Apple Watch owners--I'd love to talk with you. I'm a co-founder at Cardiogram. In multiple N=14,011 studies with UCSF Cardiology, we've shown that heart rate sensors on consumer wearables can detect multiple major health conditions like sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, and atrial fibrillation (https://cardiogr.am/research https://cardiogr.am/research). These conditions affect more than one billion people worldwide, and are frequently undiagnosed -- for example, more than 80% of people with sleep apnea don't know they have it. We're live on iOS and Android, and we could use help in several areas: mobile and frontend engineering, senior machine learning engineers, and payer relations (the reimbursement from health insurers that Steve talks about). If that sounds like you, please email me at brandon@cardiogr.am!

monkmartinez 8y ago
What kind of stack are you currently developing in?
- brandonb 8y ago
  For the Cardiogram app, most of the UI is developed in React, Redux, and D3 (for interactive charts). For functionality that needs to be native--for example, integrating with the Health app or Google Fit--we use Swift (for both iOS and watchOS) or Java (for both Android and WearOS by Google, which is itself based on Android). The backend is written in Node with PostgreSQL as the database. Since it's a large dataset (terabytes), we rely quite a bit on PostgreSQL 10's partitioning feature for our larger tables: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/ddl-partitioning.html https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/ddl-partitioning.h... The machine learning code is written in Python, using Keras, TensorFlow, Pandas, scikit-learn, statsmodels. Our AAAI-2018 paper has a bit more info on how DeepHeart (our deep neural network) works. We also do feature engineering and traditional machine learning models when appropriate: https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AAAI/AAAI18/paper/view/16967/15916 https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AAAI/AAAI18/paper/view/16...
dmead 8y ago
I'm an engineer and i have valve disease. whats up.
rootusrootus 8y ago
Ever thought about opening an office in Portland? :-) I don't have any real desire to move to SF but I do miss the fact that a lot of the cool jobs only happen down there. Ah well.
- brandonb 8y ago
  I'd love to open a second office one day. I'm from Seattle and my co-founder is from Vancouver, so the Pacific Northwest is a natural choice. Right now we're 10 people, so a second office isn't imminent, but we're definitely aware that not everybody can live or wants to live in the bay area.
jasode 8y ago
> heart rate sensors on consumer wearables can detect multiple major health conditions It sounds so logical and inevitable where this technology is heading for health care. Over 10 years ago, I paid $1200 to wear a Holter monitor[1] for 24 hours. In contrast, a consumer wearable like Apple Watch is $399. Arguably, the Holter monitor fee also included the doctor's time to read the ECG recording. But it also seems like a lot of the rudimentary analysis of heart data from wearables will be done in the cloud with machine learning. Hence, the price of basic diagnosis goes way down. With the increasing aging population in USA, Europe, and Japan that will want to stay on top of medical issues, it seems like a big business opportunity. A bunch of players are going to compete in this space. Good luck to you! [1] link for those not familiar with the device: https://www.google.com/search?q=holter+monitor https://www.google.com/search?q=holter+monitor
- JshWright 8y ago
  You're never going to diagnose something based on a watch (or other consumer focused wearable). The watch is just telling you that you should go talk to your doctor (so they can get you on a real cardiac monitor and get the level of information needed to make a diagnosis). Consumer wearables aren't going to be replacing Holter monitors. EDIT: A lot of folks seem to be interpreting my comment as implying there is no value in this technology. That is absolutely not the case. There is huge value in widely deployed screening like this (especially since it looks like the specificity is quite high). My point is that these devices will not be replacing diagnostic equipment (in fact, it may very well increase its use as more conditions that would otherwise have gone undetected will now be flagged for further diagnostic testing).
  - coder543 8y ago
    The Apple Watch can perform an FDA-cleared diagnosis of certain forms of Atrial Fibrillation, and if what they showed on stage is to be believed, it can produce a really clear ECG that's also FDA-cleared. Just because you're redirected to a doctor doesn't mean the watch did nothing, it just means the watch can't provide a complete patient care cycle. The condition is identified, now what? False-positives can happen even with current medical-grade technology. It's just a question of how the false-positive rate compares. "Never" is just such a strong word, given how quickly technology has advanced, and given how you don't seem to be aware of what exactly the new Apple Watch is supposed to be able to do. Do you work for a Holter-producing company or something?
avgDev 8y ago
Is there any interest in developing software to help arrive at a diagnosis? As that would somewhat overlap with the ability to track users vitals. I suffer from chronic pain, and doctors are seriously unreliable when it comes to diagnosing something relatively complex, even though the research is there and has been available for many years. I would be interested in joining a project that would become a tool that helps diagnose complex conditions, or at least provide a path for diagnosis.
agumonkey 8y ago
I need a list of seriously precise devices that are below 200$. By ~seriously I mean something I could rely medically and not a tiny wrist watch that will have too much noise / jitter to be useful. It's for family members (including me). thanks
- brandonb 8y ago
  For sub-$200 price range, I'd suggest some of the less expensive Garmin models (which Cardiogram is currently compatible with) or the Fitbit Charge HR 3 (which we'll hopefully be compatible with in the future).
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    Thanks a lot
DenisM 8y ago
Your web site doesn't have a page about hiring, and I could not determine where your offices are located.
- brandonb 8y ago
  Good point. We're in San Francisco, and yeah, we should add a hiring page. :)
toomuchtodo 8y ago
Thanks for your work! I bought an Apple Watch primarily to use with Cardiogram.
- brandonb 8y ago
  Thanks for using it, and for the kind words!
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

monkmartinez 8y ago

What kind of stack are you currently developing in?

brandonb 8y ago
For the Cardiogram app, most of the UI is developed in React, Redux, and D3 (for interactive charts). For functionality that needs to be native--for example, integrating with the Health app or Google Fit--we use Swift (for both iOS and watchOS) or Java (for both Android and WearOS by Google, which is itself based on Android). The backend is written in Node with PostgreSQL as the database. Since it's a large dataset (terabytes), we rely quite a bit on PostgreSQL 10's partitioning feature for our larger tables: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/ddl-partitioning.html https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/ddl-partitioning.h... The machine learning code is written in Python, using Keras, TensorFlow, Pandas, scikit-learn, statsmodels. Our AAAI-2018 paper has a bit more info on how DeepHeart (our deep neural network) works. We also do feature engineering and traditional machine learning models when appropriate: https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AAAI/AAAI18/paper/view/16967/15916 https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AAAI/AAAI18/paper/view/16...

dmead 8y ago

I'm an engineer and i have valve disease. whats up.

rootusrootus 8y ago

Ever thought about opening an office in Portland? :-) I don't have any real desire to move to SF but I do miss the fact that a lot of the cool jobs only happen down there. Ah well.

brandonb 8y ago
I'd love to open a second office one day. I'm from Seattle and my co-founder is from Vancouver, so the Pacific Northwest is a natural choice. Right now we're 10 people, so a second office isn't imminent, but we're definitely aware that not everybody can live or wants to live in the bay area.

jasode 8y ago

> heart rate sensors on consumer wearables can detect multiple major health conditions It sounds so logical and inevitable where this technology is heading for health care. Over 10 years ago, I paid $1200 to wear a Holter monitor[1] for 24 hours. In contrast, a consumer wearable like Apple Watch is $399. Arguably, the Holter monitor fee also included the doctor's time to read the ECG recording. But it also seems like a lot of the rudimentary analysis of heart data from wearables will be done in the cloud with machine learning. Hence, the price of basic diagnosis goes way down. With the increasing aging population in USA, Europe, and Japan that will want to stay on top of medical issues, it seems like a big business opportunity. A bunch of players are going to compete in this space. Good luck to you! [1] link for those not familiar with the device: https://www.google.com/search?q=holter+monitor https://www.google.com/search?q=holter+monitor

JshWright 8y ago
You're never going to diagnose something based on a watch (or other consumer focused wearable). The watch is just telling you that you should go talk to your doctor (so they can get you on a real cardiac monitor and get the level of information needed to make a diagnosis). Consumer wearables aren't going to be replacing Holter monitors. EDIT: A lot of folks seem to be interpreting my comment as implying there is no value in this technology. That is absolutely not the case. There is huge value in widely deployed screening like this (especially since it looks like the specificity is quite high). My point is that these devices will not be replacing diagnostic equipment (in fact, it may very well increase its use as more conditions that would otherwise have gone undetected will now be flagged for further diagnostic testing).
- coder543 8y ago
  The Apple Watch can perform an FDA-cleared diagnosis of certain forms of Atrial Fibrillation, and if what they showed on stage is to be believed, it can produce a really clear ECG that's also FDA-cleared. Just because you're redirected to a doctor doesn't mean the watch did nothing, it just means the watch can't provide a complete patient care cycle. The condition is identified, now what? False-positives can happen even with current medical-grade technology. It's just a question of how the false-positive rate compares. "Never" is just such a strong word, given how quickly technology has advanced, and given how you don't seem to be aware of what exactly the new Apple Watch is supposed to be able to do. Do you work for a Holter-producing company or something?

avgDev 8y ago

Is there any interest in developing software to help arrive at a diagnosis? As that would somewhat overlap with the ability to track users vitals. I suffer from chronic pain, and doctors are seriously unreliable when it comes to diagnosing something relatively complex, even though the research is there and has been available for many years. I would be interested in joining a project that would become a tool that helps diagnose complex conditions, or at least provide a path for diagnosis.

agumonkey 8y ago

I need a list of seriously precise devices that are below 200$. By ~seriously I mean something I could rely medically and not a tiny wrist watch that will have too much noise / jitter to be useful. It's for family members (including me). thanks

brandonb 8y ago
For sub-$200 price range, I'd suggest some of the less expensive Garmin models (which Cardiogram is currently compatible with) or the Fitbit Charge HR 3 (which we'll hopefully be compatible with in the future).
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Thanks a lot

DenisM 8y ago

Your web site doesn't have a page about hiring, and I could not determine where your offices are located.

brandonb 8y ago
Good point. We're in San Francisco, and yeah, we should add a hiring page. :)

toomuchtodo 8y ago

Thanks for your work! I bought an Apple Watch primarily to use with Cardiogram.

brandonb 8y ago
Thanks for using it, and for the kind words!

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]