Google appoints its first chief health officer, who was once an official in the Obama administration, as the company takes a deeper dive into the health care industry
- Dr Karen DeSalvo was hired as Google Health’s first chief health officer
- Google Health is a personal record service that allows users to store and manage their healthcare information online
- She worked in the Health and Human Services Department under former President Barack Obama between 2014 and 2016
- DeSalvo has spent the last two years teaching medicine and population health at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School
Dr Karen DeSalvo (pictured), a former official in the Health and Human Services Department under President Barack Obama, has been hired as Google Health’s first chief health officer
Google announced on Thursday that it has hired its first chief health officer as the tech company take a deeper dive into the healthcare industry.
Dr Karen DeSalvo, a former health official who worked under the Obama administration, was named the new head of Google Health.
Google Health is a personal record service that allows users to store and manage their healthcare information online.
DeSalvo has spent the last two years teaching medicine and population health at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School, reported CNBC.
This is the second former federal health official hired by Google.
Last month, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, hired former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf to lead Google Health’s strategy and policy team.
Both Califf and DeSalvo will begin their roles later this year.
In recent years, Google had announced it would begin heavily investing in the healthcare industry, such as new drug research and making sure it served more life sciences companies.
Last year, Dr David Feinberg was tapped to lead Google Health from his role at Geisinger, a regional healthcare provider in New Jersey.
DeSalvo will be reporting directly to Feinberg and will advise the tech company on Google Cloud’s work doctors, nurses and healthcare providers, according to CNBC.
She will also be advising Verily, a research organization at Alphabet focusing on the study of life sciences and potential future technology.
In addition to her role at Dell Medical School, DeSalvo has been on several medical boards such as that of Humana, a health insurance plan company.
She also served as assistant health secretary and national coordinator for health information technology in the Health and Human Services Department between 2014 and 2016 under former President Barack Obama.
Google has begun heavily investing in the healthcare industry, such as new drug research and making sure it served more life sciences companies. Pictured: The entrance to the Google UK offices in London
Alphabet and Google are not the only technology companies that have been investing in the healthcare market.
In 2018, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and billionaire Warren Buffet announced they were creating a joint company that would provide their employees with high quality healthcare.
Shortly after, Uber announced Uber Health, a service that would take patients and healthcare providers to and from care.
And, earlier this year, the UK’s National Health Service announced it was teaming with Amazon’s AI voice assistant Alexa to help answer medical questions such as ‘Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?’ or ‘Alexa, what are the symptoms of flu?’