Google Cloud, Mayo Clinic developing generative AI search

Google Cloud and Mayo Clinic are the latest organizations to try their hand at generative artificial intelligence in healthcare. 

Google Cloud, the tech giant’s cloud arm, said Wednesday it is working with Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic to develop a generative AI-enabled enterprise search capability for the system’s healthcare providers and researchers. The functionality, being developed on Google Cloud’s generative AI app builder platform, will be designed to make it easier for clinicians to access critical medical information at the point of care.

Sign up for the Digital Health Intelligence newsletter and keep up with one of the industry’s fastest-growing sectors.

The enterprise search functionality is widely available to Google Cloud customers to develop for their own business use cases. Mayo, which is in the early adoption phase, didn’t specify a timeline for when the capability would be rolled out across the health system. 

Generative AI is the capability of algorithms to automatically generate content from user queries such as text, video and images. Google said its enterprise search app can support compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The public version of ChatGPT from developer OpenAI is not compliant with HIPAA. 

The Google-Mayo collaboration is the latest example of the growing enthusiasm digital health companies and health systems have shown for generative AI since the introduction of ChatGPT in November. 

On Monday, primary care company Carbon Health said it was introducing an AI-enabled voice-to-text tool to help clinicians write medical notes in its electronic health record system. Microsoft subsidiary Nuance Communications, a clinical documentation software company, said in March it is integrating GPT-4 voice-to-text capabilities into the EHR. EHR giant Epic Systems is implementing generative AI functionality into its EHR, the company said in April. 

Google Cloud and Mayo Clinic have partnered in several areas over the past few years. In February 2021, the tech firm opened an office in Rochester to strengthen its relationship with the health system. The two organizations also launched a clinical data analytics platform on Google’s cloud and a joint research project to study whether AI can automate aspects of radiation therapy planning.