Google has announced that it is bringing on David Feinberg, CEO of Geisinger Health, to oversee its various health care initiatives.

The tech giant has tipped its toe into a number of different health-related ventures in recent years. It is one of a number of major companies that is trying to find ways to reduce costs in the U.S. health care system through data-driven or tech-enabled efficiencies.

Currently, Google's many health-related ventures are spread out among different branches of the company. Some divisions are more explicitly centered on health, such as Google Fit, the wearable division, and Verily, the life sciences division geared towards technology that diagnoses and analyzes disease.

Other divisions of the company are not focused specifically on health but have an interest in using their innovations in health care. Those include Deep Mind, an artificial intellidivision; Google Cloud; Google Brain, which focuses on deep-learning AI; and Nest, a division focused on internet-connected devices.

The disparate initiatives envision a health care system that harnesses data to identify and manage risk factors more cheaply than the traditional system. The system can reduce costs by relying more heavily on telemedicine, wearable devices or other automated processes that ensure that patients are taking their medication or doing other things to stay healthy.

A big part of reducing costs comes from eliminating unnecessary office visits, tests and procedures, which experts say is one of the big problems driving up the cost of care. The more that the system is driven by data, however, the more likely that doctors will stop ordering procedures or tests that deliver little return on investment.

Nest, the IoT division, is particularly focused on how connected devices can keep tabs on seniors, potentially allowing patients who would otherwise have to live in an assisted-care facility to stay in their own homes.

What else are tech giants doing for health care?

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Google brings in health care bigwig to unite its various health initiatives

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