Artificial intelligence in healthcare: a perspective from Google

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the promise of transforming healthcare by improving patient outcomes, increasing accessibility and efficiency, and decreasing the cost of care but realizing this vision of a healthier world for everyone everywhere requires partnerships and trust between healthcare systems, clinicians, payers, technology companies, pharmaceutical companies, and governments to help bring innovations in machine learning and artificial intelligence to patients. Google is a technology company that is partnering with healthcare systems, clinicians, and researchers to develop technology solutions to directly improve the lives of patients. This chapter reviews the use of AI in healthcare from Google’s perspective. Landmark studies of AI application in healthcare are shared and the application of Google’s novel system of organizing information to unify data in electronic health records (EHRs) and bring an integrated view of patient records to clinicians is described. Google’s consumer-focused innovation in dermatology to help guide search journeys for personalized information about skin conditions is also summarized. Finally how to embed ethics and a concern for all patients into the development of AI is reviewed from Google’s perspective.