David Feinberg, MD, who recently transitioned into a leadership role at Google's health team, said the tech giant is working to correct issues of fake news in healthcare, The Telegraph reports.
Dr. Feinberg, who previously served as president and CEO of Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, said that roughly 7 percent of the daily searches on Google are health-related, equating to 70,000 searches per minute.
"People are asking us about conditions, medication, symptoms and insurance questions," Dr. Feinberg said during a recent technology conference in Austin, Texas, according to The Telegraph. "In this case, we are organizing the world's health information and making it accessible to everyone."
Google has come under fire in recent weeks for providing misinformation on some health topics, including vaccinations and certain health issues. Dr. Feinberg said the company has "teams" of physicians and nurses analyzing search results, and that Google has worked to correct the flow of misinformation.
"If you Google 'How am I going to kill myself?' the first thing that comes up is a suicide prevention note. … If you Google 'vaccines and autism,' it comes up with the original study that says [the study] was flawed and not appropriate," he said.
"I feel this urgency, this need to move fast. But then we have to be super careful because we do not want to erode trust. If people stop coming to Google, it is game over. At the same time, we have tools to make care better and we need to get them out," he added.
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