Saturday, June 30, 2007

Google health group - no nurses, no internationals

As pointed out by Rod Ward on his Informaticopia blog (www.rodspace.co.uk/blog/blogger.html), Google have set up a 'Google Health Advisory Council' - further details are at:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-advisory-group-on-health.html.

And guess what? - surprise, surprise, there are are no nurses on it. In fact, it has 5 women out of the 22 (23%), seemingly no-one from outside the USA, and 13 (59%) have MD after their name.

This does not show the kind of forward-thinking, or even current thinking and awareness, on health issues that one would expect from a global company that claims to want to 'better understand the problems consumers and providers face every day and offer feedback on product ideas and development'. I think, given the tone of many blog posts that are linking to the article, they will soon begin to understand!

Perhaps this is an opportunity for the international nursing community, and the nursing component of the blogosphere, to flex some muscle.

Note also that many other health professionals are similarly excluded.

3 comments:

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Monique said...

KUDOS to Google for wanting to ensure consumers obtain acurate information. SHAME on Google for not having the forsight to invite diversity onto the council panel...no nurses...no physical or occupational therapists...no internationals. There is so much more to understanding disease and disease management than what the average (or even above average) American MD has to offer. Google, LOOK beyond the obvious and add a rounded international and interdisciplanary team to the council. The result could be phenomenal!

Torqued said...

It looks like the Center for Nursing Advocacy has posted a response to Google regarding the lack of nurses on the Health Advisory Council. Now we just have to wait to see what Google's response is.