Streams, Google’s UK Clinician App, a Casualty of Its Defunct Health Division

Google is shutting down Streams, a clinician support app used in the UK, the latest fallout of Google’s decision to end its Health Division....
Streams, Google’s UK Clinician App, a Casualty of Its Defunct Health Division
Written by Matt Milano
  • Google is shutting down Streams, a clinician support app used in the UK, the latest fallout of Google’s decision to end its Health Division.

    Google announced last week that it was shutting down its Health Division, the latest in a long string of products, platforms and services the company promises will change the world, only to unceremoniously kill them off later. App Maker, Chromebook Pixel, Game Builder, Google Hangouts, Google Jump, Google Play Music and Google+ are just a few of the examples — trust us, there’s many, many more.

    According to TechCrunch, Streams is in the process of being discontinued, despite at least one UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust still using it in its hospitals. When it was first released, a number of NHS Trusts adopted the app, although most have since stopped using it. It’s not clear whether their abandoning it caused Google to rethink its plans, or if a lack of serious effort and commitment on Google’s part prompted them to move away from it.

    Either way, the company has such a reputation for this behavior, that it recently had to reassure its cloud customers it wouldn’t do the same to them. As the third largest cloud provider, Google has built a major business providing cloud services to countless companies, companies that want to know a critical feature they rely on won’t suddenly be killed off on a whim. As a result, Google announced the release of Enterprise APIs in an effort to put any concern to rest.

    It’s a safe bet, even with Enterprise APIs, the shuttering of an entire division is going to make some of Google’s customers very nervous.

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