Feinberg leaving Geisinger to head health initiatives at Google

David Feinberg, MD, president and CEO of Geisinger, is leaving the integrated health services organization to lead Google’s expanding healthcare initiatives.

Feinberg is joining Google as the technology giant continues to ramp up its presence in the healthcare market.

At the HIMSS18 conference this past March, the company announced a new cloud-based application programming interface aimed at addressing the industry’s interoperability challenges by freeing up the flow of information to generate actionable insights from artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Also See: Google announces Cloud Healthcare API to unlock health data

Feinberg is the latest senior healthcare executive to join Google. This past summer, former Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, became an executive adviser to the Google Cloud healthcare and life sciences team.

However, Feinberg will remain at Geisinger until January 3 to “help facilitate a smooth transition,” according to the Danville, Penn.-based health system, which announced on Thursday that its board of directors has appointed Jaewon Ryu, MD—who has served as executive vice president and chief medical officer for the past two years—as Geisinger’s interim president and CEO, effective December 1.

“On behalf of the entire Geisinger Board and family, we thank Dr. Feinberg for his exemplary leadership and vision during his tenure as CEO,” said John Bravman, chairman of the board, in a written statement. “Dr. Feinberg has led Geisinger through a significant period of transformation focusing on developing innovative programs and models to further our mission of value- and community-based care that ensures we are positioned to serve our communities well into the future. We are deeply appreciative of his service to Geisinger, and we wish him only the best.”

Feinberg has led Geisinger for almost four years. Under his leadership, the organization continued to enhance its innovative use of electronic health records and care delivery models.

In addition, Geisinger has expanded its population health genomics program beyond research and into routine clinical practice, effectively enabling the organization’s patients to be the first in the nation to have the sequencing of their DNA as part of standard care.

Geisinger’s MyCode Community Health Initiative—a precision medicine research effort launched in 2007—is serving as the model for integrating genomics and data science into everyday preventive care at the organization. To date, MyCode has enrolled more than 200,000 participants.

“It has been a great privilege to lead Geisinger during the past nearly four years,” said Feinberg in a written statement. “Together, we have improved patient and member experience, along with our quality of care, employee engagement and physician and nurse recruitment, and our legacy of innovation has blossomed.”

He added that he is “leaving Geisinger in capable hands as the leadership team continues to advance Geisinger’s important mission of taking care of the people we serve” and is looking forward to “following Geisinger’s achievements in the years to come.”