Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Google’s secret weapon is a four letter word, I have oft said: SPIN!

What is Google spinning now to the Googleplex advantage? Nothing less than its own ten year “electronic medicine” plan for the U.S. $2 trillion health care industry.

Google is on a mission, a medical one, and it is attacking on all (opposing) cylinders: 1) Consumer Health Care Advocacy and 2) Corporate Health Care Advertising Sales.

Google is at its Googley inconsistent communications best as it seeks to control all the world’s MEDICAL information and make it universally accessible, via the for-profit Google servers that is.

On the one public policy hand, Google deplores to its users that our nations’ phsyicians, health care providers and medical service vendors are not serving American consumers as they should. On the other AdWords hand, Google comes to the defense of the same medical community that it maligns by offering rehabilitation via high-priced advertising on the Google network.

GOOGLE HEALTH CONSUMER ADVOCACY

Adam Bosworth, Google VP engineering, (aka Google Health architect), has been on a cross-country road show at Google sponsored (financed) medical conference keynotes pitching how Google aims to cure the nation’s medical ills via a Googley technology solution.

Bosworth on how the American public is at big medical risk, in drastic need of Google intervention:

At some point in a patient’s life, the odds of them being treated in a way which doesn’t follow the guidelines and rules is 45%. There are estimates that somewhere between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die every year from a preventable medical error at a hospital, or about 150 to 300 preventable inpatient deaths a day. And approximately 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from an adverse drug event. There are roughly 5000 preventable medical errors a day taking place at doctor’s offices.

Is Google deliberately weakening consumer confidence in the reliability of U.S. health care delivery?

Bosworth does not cite any sources for his indictment of the nations’ medical practioners; Bosworth, a Google engineer, also famously refutes the need for precise Google SERPs, believing that search is a “fuzzy problem.”

What is Google going to do about what it claims is a sad state of U.S. health affairs then?

The Googleplex has been beefing up its medical connections with influential personnel and advisory recruits.

Dr. Roni Zeiger is heralded at the official Google blog as a friendly “family practioner.” In welcoming Zeiger as a Googler, Google neglects, however, to note that Zeiger is well versed in software for the mobile delivery of medical information. Zeiger products include Mobile DDX, A “Differential Diagnosis Tool.”

Additonally, about two dozen high powered corporate, hospital, medical school and medical foundation executives are at the Google disposal on a new “advisory group.”

The Google Health heavy-hitter advisory includes key decision makers at:

The American Medical Association,
American College of Physicians,
The Cleveland Clinic,
Harvard Medical School,
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan…

The Google end-game is nothing short of becoming the one-stop, defacto, go-to destination and repository for ALL the personal, private medical information of ALL the nation’s residents, for starters. Bosworth:

The vision for the future of health care starts with the premise that consumers should own their own personal health and wellness data and that only consumers, not insurers, not employers, and not even doctors, but only consumers, should have complete control over how it is used.

SO, Googley power to the U.S. health care consumer? Only if Google’s massively scalable infrastructure is running the data show! Bosworth clarifies:

As an additional premise, we believe consumers should have the right to all data that is about their personal health and wellness in electronic form. 

What other health care rights is Google championing? The paid privilege of medical service providers to refurbish their tarnished image–thanks to bad mouthing by Google’s Health Architect, Adam Bosworth, and Michael Moore in his new film “Sicko”–by bidding for the right to buy the ultimate consumer satisfaction building tool: Google AdWords.

GOOGLE HEALTH ADVERTISING SALES 

The Google Health Advertising blog aparently has not been reading the blog posts of the head of Google Health, Adam Bosworth.

As cited above, Boswosrth is on a “negative press” health care kick. Nevertheless, Lauren Turner, Account Planner, Google Health advertising sales headlines her post at the official Google Health Advertising blog: “Does negative press make you Sicko?”

Google Health does not have its medical stories straight. Turner laments:

The healthcare industry is no stranger to negative press. A drug may be a blockbuster one day and tolled as a public health concern the next. News reporters may focus on Pharma’s annual sales and its executives’ salaries while failing to share R&D costs. Or, as is often common, the media may use an isolated, heartbreaking, or sensationalist story to paint a picture of healthcare as a whole. With all the coverage, it’s a shame no one focuses on the industry’s numerous prescription programs, charity services, and philanthropy efforts.

REALLY? Is it not a shame that the head of Google Health is doing his part to paint a “sensationalist” story of how DANGEROUS the U.S. health care system is! Enter a hospital at your own risk, is the Bosworth message.

Google’s own powerful Bosworth penned “negative press” against the nation’s medical practioners could very well be driving Google Health Advertising sales, as Google seeks to do by capitalizing on Michael Moore.

The Google anti-Sicko ad sales pitch to the health care industry:

Companies come to us hoping we can help them better manage their reputations through “Get the Facts” or issue management campaigns. Your brand or corporate site may already have these informational assets, but can users easily find them?

We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding content network. Whatever the problem, Google can act as a platform for educating the public and promoting your message. We help you connect your company’s assets while helping users find the information they seek.

If Google Health Advertising was really concerned about “managing” the reputations of health care providers, Google VP Adam Bosworth would cease “calling out” the very entities it aims to sell bilions of dollars of medical AdWords to.

ALSO: Google’s Opinion: Medical Advertising Fuels Democracy and Google, Hillary Clinton and U.S. Health Care

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN