When Big Tech Targets Healthcare | Storyteller

NOTE: When Big Tech Targets Healthcare, available until May15, 2023

Director’s Statement

By David Carr-BROWN

I'm telling a global story, whose main players are the big multinationals –such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft – which dominate the internet and the use we make of it.

To immerse the viewer in their universe, I represent GAFAM through the imagery they produce to sell us their new technological solutions. That said, my ambition is not to make an inventory of their myriad health applications and connected objects. This investigation is not so much about the gadgets that Silicon Valley has invented but about the upheavals involved in this coordinated transformation of our healthcare systems.

A string of contributors (doctors, commentators, scientists, etc.) brings a critical look at these grand designs. They highlight the potential disparities between these large-scale projects, with their uncertain or even hazardous consequences, and the day-to-day concerns of patients.

In the United States, the main focus of my investigation is Silicon Valley, California. This is where most of the GAFAM headquarters are located.  Stanford University, which is home to most of the professors and start-ups in the field of medical technology, also happens to be in its heart. To infiltrate the political and financial decision-making centers of this health revolution, I also had to make inquiries in New York and Washington.

But these changes looming over the health sector are not just the business of web giants and their shareholders. This documentary aims to remind us that we are all, as individuals, affected by these changes.

At each stage of this journey, I keep in mind what was once the essence of medicine: That of the patient-doctor relationship, crystallized around the moment of care. It is a highly realistic microscopic study of the human condition in the face of disease. My probe thus moves from health institutions, doctors, national administrations, and innovative start-ups, to finally arrive at the giants of Silicon Valley.

The real-life situations give rhythm to the film. They may be brief, but they help us understand how these public health issues, which might seem abstract and remote, relate to everyday problems, and to our future.

Storyteller airs every Sunday at 1800 GMT. Live stream: https://bit.ly/2LDmffl