Below are extracts from an article in Digital Health News, with thanks to Richard Fitton. Read online here:
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2023/06/google-healths-karen-de-salvo-says...
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Google... wants to become the responsible face of health knowledge through Google Health
The company’s chief health officer Karen de Salvo spoke to Digital Health News about Google’s latest plans...
“We have a really bold ambition to help billions of people be healthier,” she explained...
Three out of four people use the internet to find out about a health problem before they seek care from a physician, she says, and many consult friends or neighbours or listen to artists or sports figures that they trust.
Google has gained a font of knowledge about how people use information platforms to learn about their health conditions through the company’s own platforms and applications...
Establishing trust with health users is “job one” she said...
The four billion Android phones in use globally provide an affordable tool in the pocket of patients and carers in developing countries. Google continues to work with organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and developers to build applications useful to those in low- middle- and high-income markets.
“Matching people with the right health information is a question of meeting them where they are in that consumer-driven, digital first place,” De Salvo says. “We know we’ve got to also help healthcare systems and doctors and enterprises.” ...
The company already has seven key principles relating to AI: it must be socially beneficial, it should avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias; it should be built and tested for safety; it should be accountable to people; it should incorporate privacy design principles; it should uphold high standards of scientific excellence; and it should be made available for uses that accord with each of the principles...
“I think there is a potential for large language models to democratise access to help,” she says. “Especially for the billlions of people on the planet who don’t have access to healthcare right now, because large language models are such an important augment to the physical care systems – they can scale and expand and they also bring the best evidence to bear immediately.”...
“If the tools are just getting sharper and better, I think it is going to give more time and space for the humanity of medicine,” De Salvo concludes. “AI won’t replace doctors; the doctors who use AI will replace the doctors who don’t.”
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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
