Imagine a software platform so smart, it can take care of all the computing and data analysis needed to allow Parkinson's disease researchers to focus on finding a cure.
That's the aim of a new technology by cloud giant Amazon Web Services - a new way to write software programs to cope with the avalanche of data generated by the Internet of Things where smart devices talk to one another.
In a study with the potential to generate 365 terabytes a year, researchers at The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Intel equipped Parkinson's sufferers with smart wristbands linked over Bluetooth to smartphones running custom apps.
Sensors such as accelerometers in the wristbands and smartphones recorded the patients' every move and combined with a diary app that asked them to qualify how they felt and when they took medication.
The devices were so sensitive they detected changes in a patient's gait and short-lived hand tremors. This information was sent over the mobile phone data network to the cloud for analysis.
The problem for researchers was they needed to act on the information as it came in, something traditional data analytics software couldn't handle, said Intel principal engineer and project architect Moty Fania.
"We wanted to apply a lot of analytics as the data was ingested," Mr Fania said. "It's supposed to be a smart pipe not a dumb one."
The next step was to open the solution to doctors to monitor and advise their patients in real time, he said.
The technology, called Lambda, differs from traditional ways to write software because instead of knowing ahead of time what resources an application needs (such as computing grunt and storage), a programmer leaves it to the cloud to decide.
Lambda kicks in based on triggers or events, which could be just a drop of water falling on a rain gauge and may last just a fraction of a second.
This process, known to boffins as "abstraction", greatly simplifies programming.
AWS chief technology officer Werner Vogels said it enabled programmers to focus on their ideas while the smart cloud system did the rest.
Beyond healthcare, Netflix is using Lambda to encode movie files and manage its network, according to the video streaming giant's chief product officer Neil Hunt.
Chris Wanstrath, founder of online program code software hosting service GitHub, said it was one of the most promising new technologies he had seen.
"Lambda just, like, tickled my brain. That is a fascinating way to think about the world. It's cool."
Speaking at the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, Mr Fania said he expected Lambda to become the norm for IoT development in areas as diverse as healthcare, smart cities and industrial settings.
The writer attended the AWS event as a guest of the company.