A Big Four tech company has launched a platform it hopes will accelerate data interoperability and AI adoption in, specifically, medical imaging.

Alphabet’s Google unveiled the platform, Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite, Oct. 4. In the process the company announced its intentions to open AI-powered medical imaging to broad swathes of patients and, in the process, lighten workloads for radiologists.

Pointing out that nearly 90% of all healthcare data is imaging data, Google Cloud suggests image interpretation has been more dependent on humans than it needs to be in the age of big data analytics.

“Google pioneered the use of AI and computer vision in Google Photos, Google Image Search, and Google Lens, and now we're making our imaging expertise, tools, and technologies available for healthcare and life sciences enterprises,” says Google Cloud medtech strategist Alissa Hsu Lynch in the announcement. “Our Medical Imaging Suite shows what’s possible when tech and healthcare companies come together.”

Toward that end, Google Cloud is partnering with numerous technology suppliers to move the medical imaging operation forward.

For example, it’s working with NetApp and Change Healthcare on image exchange in the cloud, Nvidia and Monai on automated image labeling, and at least five companies on deploying the system at scale—CitiusTech, Deloitte, Omnigen, Slalom and Quantiphi.

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Early Real-World Deployments Include Prostate, Cervical Cancer

The Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite comprises a number of constituent parts native to Google Cloud, the company says.

Along with scalable imaging storage and automated annotation, components include Google Cloud’s BigQuery and Looker for search functionality and AI model training, Vertex AI for model development and Anthos for centralized image management with Google Distributed Cloud.

The Oct. 4 announcement says the new platform is already in use in the provider sphere by Hackensack Meridian Health system in New Jersey (for early detection of prostate cancer) and in the industry arena by Hologic (for improved diagnostics in cervical cancer care).

Google Cloud assures its customers and prospects that data privacy and security are “of the utmost importance in all aspects of Google Cloud’s Medical Imaging Suite. Through the implementation of Google Cloud’s reliable infrastructure and secure data storage that support HIPAA compliance—along with each customer’s layers of security, privacy controls and processes—customers are able to protect the access and use of patient data.”

By Dave Pearson.