Google hires former FDA digital health leader

Google hired a former Food and Drug Administration chief as its new senior director of international digital wellbeing system. Bakul Patel put in over a decade at the Fda and most recently was the main electronic health officer of world-wide method and innovation.

“I am seeking ahead to learning from the groups in overall health across Google and Alphabet and aiding build a unified electronic wellbeing and regulatory approach,” he wrote in a Linkedin write-up Monday announcing the go.

Like all large tech corporations, Google has pushed additional into health and health care around the earlier number of many years, with blended outcomes. Its ambitions vary from mining big knowledge for algorithms to developing condition-detecting applications to pumping wearables complete of health and fitness functions. But its tactic has absent by way of some upheaval: the company dissolved the Google Overall health division in August 2021 and unfold its workforce close to to a variety of initiatives. The head of the division remaining the corporation.

Patel is only the latest to enter the new revolving door in between Alphabet and federal regulatory companies. Latest Fda Commissioner Robert Califf is a former Alphabet senior advisor. And Google’s main wellness officer Karen DeSalvo is the previous director of the Office environment of the Nationwide Coordinator for Overall health Information and facts Engineering.