Last November, Google brought together all of its teams working on health under one division. Google Health has its own leader and is organizing both Google’s and Alphabet’s approach to the very important field. It’s been in the news this month for Project Nightingale, and Google is officially detailing its mission today.
Following reports of “Project Nightingale” coming to light, Google Cloud last night published a blog post detailing its “partnership with Ascension.” One large aspect sees the health provider move data to the cloud, while another sees the two companies working on future technology to improve patient care.
Beyond the acquisition of Fitbit earlier this month, Google’s health ambitions are multi-faceted and extend into services for hospitals and health providers. Such an effort named “Project Nightingale” was detailed today, along with the end product: “Patient Search.”
This has been a surprisingly busy week for the smartwatch and wearable industry. The history of the “Pixel Watch” was chronicled, while we learned that Google is not releasing a smartwatch at its hardware event next month. In addition to the Apple Watch Series 5 launching today, a report revealed that Fitbit is considering “whether it should explore a sale.”
In November, DeepMind announced that its Stream medical assistant would be joining Google Health. That transition is official today, and includes existing healthcare partners.
Sundar Pichai testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee this morning during a 3.5 hour session that ranged from accusations of Search result bias, interference by foreign powers, and more. One area that Congress was particularly critical on was China and Project Dragonfly. In an interview later in the day, the Google CEO suggested other areas in China, instead of search, that the company could look into.
Last week, Google announced that it was planning a health initiative, beginning with the appointment of a new leader to organize the company’s desperate efforts. Reorganization efforts are now underway with Google Health incorporating a DeepMind team working on Streams.
Despite its machine learning prowess and massive consumer reach, Google has yet to launch major health products. However, the interest is there, with the company today appointing the former CEO of a health care system to lead and organize various teams.