A top hospital consultant just laid out what Google could do in healthcare over the next 5 years, from creating a medical-records system to helping form a more functional health system

Lydia Ramsey

Dec 11, 2019, 01:52 IST

A top hospital consultant just laid out what Google could do in healthcare over the next 5 years, from creating a medical-records system to helping form a more functional health system

Courtesy HLTH

Dr. David Feinberg, the head of Google Health

Healthcare industry experts are grappling with what role Google will play in healthcare.
A presentation from The Advisory Board, titled "How 'Google Health' will look in 5 years," detailed Google's health ambitions and why the tech giant's a force to be reckoned with.
Among the predictions in the presentation: Google might build an electronic medical record system, and Google will keep building up its role in the management of people's healthcare around the globe.
Over the next five years, Google's healthcare strategy is likely to hinge on its work partnering with healthcare companies to build artificial intelligence applications as well as deploying capital, especially through acquisitions, according to the consulting firm.
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In five years, search-giant Google could be playing a much bigger role in healthcare than it does today.

In December, the Advisory Board, a research and advisory company that works with health systems and is owned by UnitedHealth Group's Optum unit, held a presentation to dig into that topic.

The presentation, titled "How 'Google Health' will look in 5 years," detailed Google's health ambitions and why the tech giant's a force to be reckoned with. Among the predictions: Google might build an electronic medical record system, and Google will keep building up its role in the management of people's healthcare around the globe.

Business Insider first learned of the presentation via an analyst note from Cantor Fitzgerald.

Technology companies are increasingly wading into healthcare. Google is among the tech giants furthest embedded to date, both through its parent company Alphabet and via its Google Health organization.

Over the next five years, Google's healthcare strategy is likely to hinge on its work partnering with healthcare companies to build artificial intelligence applications as well as deploying capital, especially through acquisitions, according to the Advisory Board presentation. Google did not respond to a request for comment.

What we know about Google's health ambitions

Over the past year, Google has gotten deeper into healthcare, hiring Dr. David Feinberg to head up the Google Health division.

Feinberg's team is now responsible for coordinating health initiatives across Google, including in the company's search-engine and map products, its Android smartphone operating system, and its more futuristic offerings in areas like artificial intelligence.

Feinberg has said that one of his first main goals for the team would be to oversee how health-related searches come up and work to improve that with the Google Search team.

Google Health is just one aspect of the healthcare strategy of its parent company, Alphabet.

There's also Verily, the life-sciences arm of Alphabet, as well as Calico, its life-extension spin-off. Verily has its hands in projects spanning robotics, blood-sugar-tracking devices, and work on addiction treatment. The company has also made investments in healthcare through its venture funds GV and Capital G, as well as through Alphabet itself.

Google in November also reached a $2.1 billion deal to acquire Fitbit. The brand, best known for its fitness watches, also has a big business selling a health platform that combines coaching and fitness tracking to employers and health plans.

Beyond working with existing products, Feinberg's oversight includes the health team at Google AI, hardware components, and DeepMind Health. Both Google AI and DeepMind have pursued projects that analyze medical images like eye scans and scans of breast cancer cells, with the hope of aiding medical professionals in diagnosing and treating patients.

Bringing Google to the electronic health record

In the long term, Google's hoping to be the "data arm" of healthcare organizations, the Advisory Board said in its presentation, which was given by Senior Analyst Jackie Kimmell.

Already, Google is on its way. Mayo Clinic in September signed Google as its cloud and artificial-intelligence partner. In October, Google also signed a deal with Meditech, an electronic health record vendor.

Then in November, news broke that Google was quietly working Ascension, the second largest health system in the US, in a way that raised concerns about how much private health information the tech giant had access to and how it might use it.

Subsequently, Google Health released more information about the projects the two organizations were working on. According to documents reviewed by Business Insider and videos released by Google Health, the team has been building a patient search tool to help medical providers sift through patient information.

The moves set up Google for bigger healthcare ambitions, the Advisory Board said in its presentation.

It remains to be seen if Google can simply build a layer on top of existing EHRs, or whether it'll one day sell an EHR of its own, the analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald noted after viewing the presentation. The G-Suite tools Google's building in healthcare could be the foundation for a full-out EHR, the analysts said.

Google, for its part, holds a patent for an EHR.

The analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald noted, however, that it'd be difficult to convince health systems to move away from the massive investments they've made into their existing EHR platforms.

Google and population health

The Advisory Board said that Google is already a big population health player, citing that there are 1 billion searches a day - roughly 7% of all searches - that have to do with healthcare.

Google - more broadly through its sister company Verily - is working with organizations in population health. The Advisory Board's presentation cited Verily's work with the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Healthcare System around improving the health system's outcomes on knee replacements, alcohol withdrawal care, and heart attacks, as well as with New England-based medical group Atrius Health, working to keep patients out of the emergency room.

Sidewalk Labs, another Alphabet company, also helped form CityBlock Health, a Brooklyn-based healthcare provider that's building health hubs for Medicaid patients.

Ultimately, Google's work embedding itself with healthcare partners could lead to a more functional healthcare system.

"Over time, Google aims to develop a functioning and highly connected learning healthcare care system," the analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald wrote.

Cantor sees a lot of potential uses coming out of Google's work in healthcare

Ideally, over the next five years Google's move into healthcare could have a positive effect on the industry. In particular, Cantor Fitzgerald noted that its ambitions to make better health record tools for doctors could help reduce burnout.

Google's work could also help insurers reduce costs by getting their members to use devices and improve their long term health, as seen through the company's acquisition of FitBit, the analysts said.

The tech giant could also aid pharmaceutical companies through Verily's work in clinical trials to digitize the experience.

But while Google's bets in healthcare have reached far and wide, the analysts at Cantor weren't yet ready to make a judgment call on how effective the company's work will ultimately be.

"Google's investments in healthcare appears to be extensive. However, Google's success and longterm impact on the healthcare sector is still unclear at this juncture," the analysts wrote.