The Google executive charged with developing the internet group’s push into health information has left the company.

Adam Bosworth is the second senior figure to leave Google in a month, after the departure of George Reyes, the finance director.

A Google spokesman said: “Adam is a great talent and was instrumental in starting Google Health. He is now on vacation and has decided to pursue other opportunities after that.”

The exact shape of Google’s plans for the health sector are unknown, but speculation centres on a system that allows users to manage medical records.

“People need the medical information that is out there and available to be organised and made accessible to all,” Mr Bosworth said last year on a Google website.

“Patients also need to be able to better co-ordinate and manage their own health information.”

Mr Bosworth, who joined Google three years ago, was one of the pioneering software engineers behind XML, or Extensible Markup Language.

XML is used to tag data so it can be shared over systems such as the internet.

He was one of the figures behind the Ajax web coding system, a key technology behind the present generation of so-called web 2.0 websites.

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