Google responds to Alliance for Nursing Informatics' concerns about Health Advisory Council

[rnformatics]

The follwing piece of news came across the CARING list regarding Google's response to the Alliance for Nursing Informatics' concerns about the exclusion of nurses from Google's new Health Advisory Council:

Fellow CARING members -

This is just a brief note to let everyone know that a representative from Google responded last week to our ANI letter regarding their recent Health Advisory Council. As you may remember, Google announced in June of 2007 that they had formed a Health Advisory Council in order to help "...better understand the problems consumers and providers face every day and [to] offer feedback on product ideas and development." This announcement was quickly recognized as significant not only because of the impact Google has to the health care consumer but also because of what many felt was lacking in their council membership....nursing representation. The blog press release from Google can be found here.

As the professional community began to react, our Alliance for Nursing Informatics elected to generate a formal response on behalf of the 23 distinct nursing informatics groups and our 4,000+ nursing & healthcare informatics professionals. Over the course of several days, leaders from each of the ANI organizations collected and routed feedback into our Alliance infrastructure and a response was constructed and sent to Google. A copy of that letter can be found here.

I am happy to report that Missy Krasner, product manager at Google, has responded to our letter and acknowledged our concerns. In her letter back to ANI, Ms. Krasner explains that although their council did not include representatives from every stakeholder group in healthcare, "efforts were made to choose an advisory panel whose experience reflects diverse expertise." She further explained that at the present time their council is currently full, however she will bring our comments forward to Dr. Dean Ornish and the rest of their council for review prior to the next meeting. Included in her communication to the council, will be a recommended candidate from our nursing informatics community.

Thanks to all who responded objectively and passionately to this issue. It was a great to see our Alliance in-action with a unified response, and we couldn't have done that without your input.

---- Jerry

Jerry Chamberlain, MS, RNBC
President & Board Member, CARING
CARING - Nursing Informatics Organization