Google announced new health initiatives and partnerships at its yearly event “The Check Up”. The Google Health team shared updates regarding features coming to search, tools to build health applications, and AI-powered health research.
During the annual event, Google discussed new partnerships to develop AI-powered ultrasounds, cancer treatment as well as tuberculosis screenings.
Google’s Med-PaLM is designed to provide high-quality responses to medical queries. Med-PaLM is the first AI system to receive a passing score of 60% on multiple-choice questions similar to that of used in US medical licensing exams.
The company said, “The second iteration of the technology, Med-PaLM 2, consistently performed at an expert level on medical exam questions. Med-PaLM 2 has reached more than 85% accuracy, scoring 18% higher than its earlier results.”
Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam, a research lead at Google Health, said, “The Company is also testing Med-PaLM’s answers against responses from real doctors and clinicians. Med-PaLM’s responses are evaluated for factual accuracy, bias, and potential for harm.”
Karthikesalingam said, “The potential here is tremendous, but it’s crucial that real-world applications are explored in a responsible and ethical manner.”
