In an invention that has the potential of turning the healthcare industry upside down, Google has come up with a tool that could forecast a host of patient outcomes, like for how long does the patient has to be admitted, the odds of re-admission and the chances of death.
Google’s next step is moving this predictive system into clinics, Artificial Intelligence chief Jeff Dean told Bloomberg. The report added that Dean's unit called 'Medical Brain' is working on a prototype that can predict symptoms and the disease.
Since, the launch of Alphabet, Google’s focus has been on Artificial Intelligence and the Medical Brain initiative gives the company a chance to expand in the market.
Another Google researcher told Bloomberg that the existing models miss medical events, like whether a patient had prior surgery and described the existing hand-coded models as “an obvious, gigantic roadblock” in health care.
The Silicon Valley giant has long sought access to digital medical records, Bloomberg reported. For this research, Google has cut deals with the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Chicago for 46 billion pieces of anonymous patient data, the report added.
The project would only add to the information Google already has.
"Companies like Google and other tech giants are going to have a unique, almost monopolistic, ability to capitalise on all the data we generate," Andrew Burt, chief privacy officer for data company Immuta told the news agency.
Google is treading carefully when it comes to patient information, particularly as public scrutiny over data-collection rises.
(With inputs from Bloomberg.)
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