Google has appointed former Headspace executive Dr. Megan Jones as its first clinical director of consumer and mental health, a company spokesperson told Becker's Oct. 26.
Five details:
1. Dr. Jones joins Google from Headspace, where she recently served as chief strategy and science officer. The mental health and meditation app finalized its merger with on-demand digital mental health service Ginger earlier this month.
2. As Google's first clinical director of consumer and mental health, Dr. Jones will oversee Google Health's approach to mental and behavioral health as well as lead a team of clinicians supporting the company's consumer products.
3. Organizationally, she will be joining Google's health team led by Karen DeSalvo, MD, chief health officer of Google. The division supports Google Health and Google's companywide healthcare initiatives across Google Search, Maps, YouTube, Fitbit, Cloud and health artificial intelligence research.
4. Google's mental health initiatives include connecting people to reliable resources on YouTube, Maps and Search such as clinically validated screeners for depression.
5. Bringing on Dr. Jones is part of Google's consumer health push. The company is focused on providing information and tools that help people manage their health and well-being as well as expanding tech tools to support care teams and community health insights.
Editor's note: This article's headline was updated at 11:30 a.m. CST on Oct. 26.