Dr. Karen DeSalvo, a figure whose career has traversed the intricate landscapes of medicine, public health, and influential leadership roles in both healthcare policy and the burgeoning field of health technology, has announced her retirement, set to take effect this summer. Dr. DeSalvo made her announcement in a LinkedIn post Friday, expressing immense pride in her contributions to leveraging technology for the betterment of global health.
Having joined Google Health in 2019 as its inaugural chief health officer, Dr. DeSalvo has been instrumental in steering the tech giant’s significant expansion within the healthcare domain. Her tenure saw Google Health spearhead crucial initiatives, most notably the company’s comprehensive response to the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, under her guidance, Google Health fostered significant research endeavors through Google Health Studies and achieved notable advancements in the integration of devices, the application of artificial intelligence, and the strategic utilization of data to enhance healthcare outcomes.
The expansive portfolio of products, services, and platforms under the Google Health umbrella now encompasses Fitbit, a key acquisition in 2021, alongside healthcare-related initiatives seamlessly integrated across prominent Google platforms such as Pixel, YouTube, and Google Search. A testament to Dr. DeSalvo’s vision is the launch of Health Connect, a pivotal tool designed to integrate individuals’ health, fitness, and wellness data on the Android operating system from a diverse array of applications, empowering users with a holistic view of their well-being.
As artificial intelligence continues its rapid evolution, Google Health, under Dr. DeSalvo’s leadership, has strategically focused on the development of cutting-edge AI capabilities with the overarching goal of enhancing the delivery of care, providing robust support to clinicians, and accelerating the pace of scientific breakthroughs. A few of the company’s initiatives in healthcare AI include working with clinicians and partners to improve the accuracy and efficiency of breast cancer screening through AI-driven solutions, the application of AI to enhance the precision of genomic analysis, ongoing research into the transformative potential of generative AI tools within healthcare settings, and sustained progress with Google Research’s Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer (AMIE), a research conversational diagnostic medical AI system.
In her announcement, Dr. DeSalvo expressed her confidence in the future leadership of Google Health, specifically highlighting Dr. Michael Howell, the current chief clinical officer at Google Health, as her successor in the chief health officer role. She lauded his expertise and dedication, stating, “He is the perfect person to take on the mantle in the next chapter of Google’s cross company mission to harness our tools and technology to help everyone, everywhere live a longer, healthier life.” This transition signals a continuity of vision and a commitment to building upon the foundational work established during Dr. DeSalvo’s tenure.
Dr. DeSalvo’s distinguished career extends far beyond her impactful role at Google. A seasoned and respected leader in public health, she played a critical role in the arduous health response in New Orleans following the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Her academic contributions include serving as Vice Dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy and Chief of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine. While at Tulane, she demonstrated visionary leadership by conceiving and spearheading the creation of an innovative model for neighborhood-based primary care and mental health services, specifically tailored to serve low-income, uninsured, and other vulnerable populations in the New Orleans area in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Her commitment to public service continued as she served as New Orleans Health Commissioner and Senior Health Policy Advisor to New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu from 2011 to 2014, further solidifying her reputation as a dedicated advocate for community health.
In 2014, Dr. DeSalvo’s expertise and leadership were recognized at the national level when former President Barack Obama appointed her to serve as acting assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. During her tenure, she also held the significant role of national coordinator for health IT from 2014 to 2016, where she was instrumental in setting the national strategy and policy framework for health information technology, laying the groundwork for the digital transformation of healthcare in the United States.
Dr. DeSalvo’s nearly six-year tenure as Google’s chief health officer has coincided with a period of unprecedented transformation within the healthcare landscape, both for the technology giant and for society as a whole. Her leadership was particularly crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she spearheaded the company’s multifaceted response, leveraging Google’s vast resources to disseminate critical information and support public health efforts on a global scale. Furthermore, she was a driving force in establishing the overarching framework for Google’s strategic approach to the integration of artificial intelligence within healthcare, recognizing its immense potential to revolutionize diagnostics, treatment, and patient care. Her time at the company also witnessed a substantial expansion of Google’s healthcare ecosystem, encompassing devices, the influential YouTube platform, enhanced information sharing capabilities, and the cultivation of strategic partnerships across the healthcare industry.
Reflecting on her initial vision when she assumed the role in 2019, Dr. DeSalvo, a celebrated public health leader and a practicing physician, articulated a noble goal: to harness the power of technology to fundamentally improve the delivery of medicine and clinical care, with the ultimate aim of achieving better societal health outcomes for all.
Under her strategic guidance, Google’s healthcare division experienced remarkable growth and expansion. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a stark example of this impact, with Google and YouTube emerging as primary sources of information for billions of individuals worldwide, providing crucial updates and combating misinformation during a critical public health crisis. Over time, Google’s healthcare portfolio has continued its rapid expansion, a process that involved Dr. DeSalvo engaging directly with industry leaders and healthcare operators to gain firsthand insights into the challenges and obstacles faced by communities and partners on the ground. While Google has always been a data-centric organization, Dr. DeSalvo’s work emphasized the ethical and meaningful application of that data and information as a vital tool to empower communities, healthcare organizations, and patients to stay informed and make informed decisions about their health and well-being.
The increasing prevalence of technology companies establishing dedicated healthcare practices and divisions now appears to be a relatively routine occurrence. Indeed, many other tech giants, including Amazon Health and Microsoft, have made significant investments to create their own specialized sub-organizations focused on the healthcare sector.
However, when Dr. DeSalvo embarked on this pioneering role at Google, such a dedicated and comprehensive approach from a technology company to the complexities of healthcare was far from the norm. Building a cohesive and effective team from the ground up in this uncharted territory presented unique challenges and required innovative strategies. In fact, Google’s unique process in establishing this team was deemed so noteworthy that it was documented and published in the New England Journal of Medicine and has since been frequently cited as foundational learning for other companies aspiring to play a significant role in the evolving modern healthcare technology ecosystem.
Reflecting on her tenure, Dr. DeSalvo identifies the subtle yet profound transition of the Google Health function from being perceived primarily as advisors to becoming integral and trusted partners across the vast and diverse Google organization as one of her proudest achievements. She expressed optimism about the future, stating, “We’re in a great place as a team and as a company to leverage the best in technology and information to help billions of people.” She also highlighted the immense progress achieved across Google’s wider portfolio of healthcare-related initiatives. Notable examples include the significant growth of Google Cloud, which has empowered numerous healthcare partners to better scale their services for patients; the development of a robust ecosystem for medical content creation and information dissemination on YouTube, which has created an entirely new paradigm for knowledge sharing and education within the healthcare domain; and the company’s recent and aggressive push into the realm of generative AI, which holds immense promise for the future direction of healthcare innovation at Google.
A pivotal figure in Google Health’s growth and success story is Dr. Michael Howell, the chief clinical officer, who is poised to assume Dr. DeSalvo’s responsibilities. Dr. Howell, a critical care physician by training, initially joined Google as a principal scientist with Google Brain and rapidly transitioned into a leadership role across the broader healthcare portfolio. His contributions have been undeniably crucial to the achievements of Google Health.
Dr. Howell recounted that during his collaboration with Dr. DeSalvo, he has witnessed a substantial expansion of the clinical team, both in terms of personnel and the scope of their work across various healthcare initiatives. However, he emphasized that the core mission has remained steadfast: “we know what good care should look like; we have spent so much time thinking and talking about what is the right model to build healthcare products that will actually help people.”
Echoing this sentiment, Dr. DeSalvo commented on Dr. Howell’s suitability for the chief health officer role, stating, “he is the perfect person to step into this role. He is always thinking about the person at the other end of the technology and brings his lived experiences for the team and the products. That’s why Dr. Howell is a unicorn.”
The increasing convergence of healthcare and technology over the past decade underscores the profound impact that technology companies will undoubtedly have on reshaping the future trajectory of the healthcare industry for decades to come. The individuals and visionary leaders who undertake this momentous task are of paramount importance.
The rapid pace of technological innovation has empowered individuals, health systems, healthcare organizations, and medical devices to collect unprecedented volumes of data. In fact, RBC Capital Markets reports that the healthcare industry generates nearly 30% of the world’s entire volume of data. The imperative now lies with innovators to decipher how to effectively leverage this vast wealth of data to achieve tangible improvements in health outcomes. This fundamental challenge is precisely why technology giants across the board are making substantial multi-billion dollar investments in the healthcare sector and are establishing dedicated divisions to tackle some of the most intractable problems facing modern healthcare.
The intersection of healthcare and technology is still in its relatively early stages, with immense untapped potential in areas such as data interoperability, the proliferation of consumer wearables capable of generating valuable health insights, and the transformative capabilities of generative AI, among other promising modalities. The technology industry as a whole, including the pioneering work being done at Google/Alphabet, has demonstrated incredible promise in addressing some of healthcare’s most complex and pressing challenges. While the path forward will undoubtedly present obstacles – given that healthcare is not the most malleable industry to implement change in – significant progress has already been made in a relatively short span of time.
Dr. DeSalvo enthusiastically shares this optimistic outlook, stating, “we’re at a time of abundance. For decades, healthcare has always been painted as restrictive—not enough physicians, not enough staff, not enough resources. But now, with generative AI and technology as a whole, we can do so much with so little. I am excited and hopeful that this abundance will ultimately translate to better care and better health outcomes.” Her retirement marks the end of a significant chapter in the evolution of technology’s role in healthcare, but the foundation she helped build promises a future filled with continued innovation and a relentless pursuit of improved health for all.
(Hero image credit: Google)
