Google is scooping up executives from leading U.S. hospitals, signaling its growing interest in the $3.4 trillion healthcare industry.
Here are three hospitals the Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant has recruited C-level talent from in the past year, listed in alphabetical order:
Cleveland Clinic: Toby Cosgrove, MD, revealed plans to retire from his post as president and CEO of the nationally ranked hospital, which placed No. 2 on U.S. News & World Report's 2018-19 Best Hospitals Honor Roll, in mid-2017. One year later, Google appointed Dr. Cosgrove as an executive adviser to Google Cloud's healthcare and life sciences team, where he is tasked with helping the division investigate how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help improve healthcare processes, such as streamlining clinical workflows. Today, Dr. Cosgrove also holds an advisory role with Cleveland Clinic.
Geisinger (Danville, Pa.): In early November, Geisinger confirmed president and CEO David Feinberg, MD, would leave his post Jan. 3, 2019, to assume a leadership role at Google. While Google hasn't publicly commented on the hire, sources told CNBC Dr. Feinberg will head up coordinating Google's fragmented healthcare strategy. Under Dr. Feinberg's leadership, Geisinger has launched a host of population health efforts, including the MyCode Community Health Initiative, a precision medicine project that has enrolled 200,000-plus patients to donate DNA samples for clinical research.
University of Chicago Medicine: In late 2017, Michael Howell, MD, joined Google Research — now known as Google AI — as its chief clinical strategist. Dr. Howell had previously served as chief quality officer at UChicago Medicine and director of the UChicago Medicine Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation, where he helped lead the hospital's collaboration with Google, investigating how well historical patient data can predict future medical events. Dr. Howell is now part of the Google Brain team focused on applying AI to various problems in healthcare, including challenges related to clinical quality and patient safety.