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Google Announces New AI Search Features for Doctors
Google announces new AI search features for doctors.
Google Cloud announced a new AI-driven search capability.
Healthcare professionals can access information stored across different systems and formats in one place.
Key use cases include applying billing codes and verifying clinical trial eligibility.
Testing has been conducted at Mayo Clinic and Hackensack Meridian Health.
Google Cloud complies with HIPAA and does not access customer data or use it to train its models.
Ashley Capoot @ASHLEYCAPOOT
On Monday, Google Cloud announced a new artificial intelligence-powered search feature that enables clinicians to quickly access information from different data sources.
Information Is Often Stored Across Multiple Systems and Formats
Information is often stored across multiple systems and formats, making it difficult for physicians and nurses to find what they need—but Google's new tool brings it all together in one place.
The new features will be available to health and life sciences organizations through Google's Vertex AI Search platform.
The company says this will help healthcare professionals save valuable time and energy.
On Monday, Google Cloud announced a new AI-powered search feature designed to help healthcare professionals quickly retrieve accurate clinical information from various types of medical records.
The healthcare industry is a treasure trove of valuable information and data, but because it is often stored across multiple systems and formats, it can be difficult for clinicians to find what they need. Google Cloud's new search tool allows physicians to retrieve information from clinical notes, scanned documents, and electronic health records, making it accessible in a single place.
The company said the new feature will save healthcare professionals significant amounts of time and energy.
"Not only does the ability to do that kind of search save time, but it prevents clinician frustration and should ensure they can get answers easily," Lisa O'Malley, Senior Director of Product Management for Cloud AI at Google Cloud, told CNBC.
For example, if a physician wants to know a patient's medical history, they no longer need to read notes, faxes, and electronic health records separately. Instead, they can search a question like "What medications has this patient taken in the last 12 months?" and view the relevant information in one place.
According to O'Malley, Google's
According to O'Malley, Google's new search features can also be used for other important applications, such as applying the correct billing codes and determining whether a patient qualifies for clinical trial participation.
She noted that the technology is able to cite and link back to the original source of information, drawn directly from the organization's own internal data. This should help alleviate clinician concerns that AI might hallucinate or generate inaccurate responses.
"Google Cloud headquarters in Sunnyvale, California"
The search capability will be especially valuable for healthcare professionals who are already dealing with staffing shortages and a heavy burden of administrative work.
A 2016 study funded by the American Medical Association found that for every hour a physician spends with a patient, they perform an additional two hours of administrative work. The study also found that physicians often perform one to two hours of paperwork outside of office hours—something many in the industry call "pajama time."
In January 2022, a Medscape survey found that 53% of physicians reported feeling burned out, up from 42% in 2018.
Google hopes the new search offering will reduce the time clinicians spend searching through additional records and databases.
"I think Google leveraging our search technology, medical technology, and research capabilities to make the journey of clinicians, healthcare providers, and payers faster and more efficient—saving them costs—ultimately benefits us as patients," said O'Malley.
The New Features Will Be Made Available
The new features will be made available to health and life sciences organizations through Google's Vertex AI Search platform. Companies in other industries can already use the platform to search across public websites, documents, and other databases. The specialized healthcare offering builds on Google's existing Healthcare API and Healthcare Data Engine products.
Aashima Gupta, Global Director of Healthcare Strategy and Solutions at Google Cloud, said the new Vertex AI Search capabilities can be integrated directly into clinician workflows—something that is critically important for customers in this field.
The healthcare industry has historically been cautious about adopting new technologies, and if healthcare workers find new solutions disruptive or difficult to use, adoption can become even more challenging. Gupta says this is something Google is taking great care to address.
"These are workflows that physicians and nurses perform repeatedly every day. We cannot add friction to them," Gupta told CNBC. "We're thinking about this very carefully—respecting the surfaces they use, so the workflows don't change, but they still get the power of this technology."
Customers Can Begin Registering for Early Access
Customers can begin registering for early access to the healthcare and life sciences Vertex AI Search starting Monday, but Google Cloud has already been testing its capabilities with health organizations including Mayo Clinic, Hackensack Meridian Health, and Highmark Health.
According to Cris Ross, Mayo Clinic's Chief Information Officer, Mayo has not yet used the new Vertex AI Search tool in clinical care. It is starting with administrative use cases.
"We're curious, we're enthusiastic, and we're also careful," he told CNBC. "We're not going to put anything into patient care until it's truly ready."
In the future, Ross says Mayo Clinic is exploring how the Vertex AI Search tool could be used to help nurses summarize lengthy surgical notes, organize complex patient medical histories, and easily answer questions like "What is this patient's smoking status?" For now, however, the organization is starting slowly and investigating where AI solutions like Google's can be most helpful.
At Highmark Health
Highmark Health's Chief Analytics Officer Richard Clarke described early reactions to the search tool within the organization as "excellent," and said the company already has a backlog of over 200 use case ideas. However, similar to Mayo Clinic, he noted that prioritizing where the technology is most useful, building employee trust, and scaling it broadly will be the key challenges.
"This is very early stage, being deployed with a small team with a lot of support—we're really thinking about it," Clarke told CNBC. "We haven't scaled it widely yet, but all the early signs indicate that this is very useful and frankly, in many cases, transformational for us."
Google Cloud does not access customer data or use it to train its models, and the company says the new service is compatible with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Gupta said that as a patient, interactions with the healthcare system can feel very fragmented and challenging, and she looks forward to seeing how clinicians will ultimately use Google's new tools to build a complete picture.
"For Me, Connecting the Dots from a Patient's Perspective Has Been a Long
"For me, connecting the dots from a patient's perspective has been a long journey through healthcare, and it's hard," said Gupta. "But now we're at a point where AI is helping in these very practical use cases."
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This AI news is produced by the online assistant service "TIMEWELL."
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