Google Cloud AI Healthcare Solution 'Will Ease Admin Burden'

Google Cloud has unveiled a new solution to help healthcare and life sciences organisations leverage data and generative AI (genAI) solutions to reduce clinician stress, plug global nursing staff shortfalls and improve patient outcomes. 

The solution is Vertex AI Search for Healthcare, which helps developers build better technology to ease the administrative burden on clinicians and other health workers. 

Vertex is designed to ease physician burnout, which according to a report from Medscape, was running as high as 53% in 2022. Google Cloud says its solution will also ease the global shortage of nurses, with the World Health Organisation estimating the shortfall to be around 13 million. 

It also points out that – according to research from the The Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare – healthcare admin costs were up by 30% in 2022, reaching $60 billion annually. 

Google Cloud says Vertex “presents a clear opportunity for healthcare providers, payers, electronic health records companies, and life science companies to build genAI solutions that empower healthcare workers and other employees to work more efficiently and effectively”. 

The solution enables medically-tuned genAI searches on a broad spectrum of data, including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) data and clinical notes. FHIR is the global industry standard for passing healthcare data between systems. It is free, open, and designed to be quick to learn and implement. 

Google Cloud AI medical searches 'transformative' 

This, says Google Cloud, will make it easier for healthcare and life science organisations “to build the data analytics and AI solutions needed for next era health systems”. 

It adds that medically-tuned searches on electronic health record data, scanned documents, and other clinical data, means healthcare applications “will be able to surface the most relevant information to clinicians, and to others engaged in the decision making and processing”. The company adds that this will be achievable “without the need to click through hundreds of pages of notes or toggle between different screens and applications”. 

Google Cloud Healthcare Strategy & Solutions Global Director Aashima Gupta said: “Not all generative AI is created equal, and in healthcare the stakes are particularly high.

“Healthcare organisations require enterprise-grade genAI solutions, grounded in real data. Vertex AI Search for Healthcare is already making a difference for healthcare organisations by helping ensure clinicians have the right information and insights at the right time to inform decisions and improve the overall quality of patient care.”

On the client side, Richard Clarke – Chief Data & Analytics Officer with Highmark Health – said: "At Highmark Health, we’re constantly seeking ways to harness the power of data and technology to transform the healthcare ecosystem.

“Google Cloud's Vertex AI Search integration with Healthcare Data Engine will enable us to provide even more personalised and proactive care to our members."