Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining prominence, and one of the companies at the forefront of this advancement is Google. After previously announcing and integrating AI across its applications, products, and services, Google is now unveiling new generative AI features for the healthcare sector. In a blog post, two Google executives, Aashima Gupta, Global Director of Healthcare Strategy and solutions, and Lisa O’Malley, Senior Director of Product Management for Cloud AI in healthcare, provided a comprehensive overview of Google's latest contributions to healthcare.

The executives emphasized the significance of AI in their statement: "AI is the most exciting technology we are working on today. From aiding clinicians in documentation to optimizing operations, from accelerating medical research to assisting doctors in early disease detection, this remarkable technology has the potential to reshape our world and foster healthier, more fulfilling lives."

Google's objective is to assist individuals in locating the most pertinent information and extracting valuable insights from it. Gupta and O'Malley explained, "Ultimately, this empowers healthcare organizations to operate with greater efficiency, enables clinicians to work more effectively, and enhances patient care."

Google points out that healthcare professionals often encounter challenges in uncovering insights within clinical data, which may be spread across various structured and unstructured data repositories. This can result in difficulties in locating crucial information and potentially lead to critical details being overlooked. Additionally, understanding clinical context is crucial to discerning the significance of data. Google aims to address these issues by leveraging generative AI (gen AI) technology.

Vertex AI Search: For healthcare professionals

Google is extending access to its Vertex AI Search features to Google Cloud customers, and interested parties can now sign up for early access, with a particular focus on healthcare and life science companies.

These new features are designed to provide healthcare organizations with advanced-gen AI search capabilities that are finely tuned for medical contexts. They empower users to efficiently locate precise clinical information and search a wide range of data sources, including FHIR data, clinical notes, and electronic health records (EHRs). As the two Google executives highlighted, this advancement allows for more accurate and efficient data retrieval in the healthcare sector.

Furthermore, life science organizations can utilize these features to enhance scientific communication and streamline their processes. This expansion builds upon Vertex AI Search's existing capacity to search documents, external websites, and various data sources. It integrates seamlessly with Google Cloud's Healthcare API and Healthcare Data Engine, incorporating the search and intelligent summarization capabilities from Google Health's pilot product, Care Studio.