Google cloud German healthcare company Bayer announced on Tuesday that it is building an artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to help radiologists diagnose patients and handle cases faster.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian told CNBC that the platform’s generative artificial intelligence will flag abnormalities in images for radiologists to review and can also extract relevant information from the patient’s medical history. For example, if a patient attends an annual breast cancer screening, the platform can detect current problems, compare images to previous screenings and summarize the information, he said.
Radiologists are doctors who use medical images such as CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays to identify and treat disease. But radiologists, like doctors in many specialties in the United States, face a growing workforce shortage, according to the Radiological Society of North America.As of early April, more than 1,800 vacancies remained Job vacancy announcement There are approximately 220 listings on the American College of Radiology’s website, and there were approximately 220 listings in April 2014.
Many radiologists are also battling burnout as caseloads continue to rise due to an aging population and easier access to imaging technology. Google Cloud says its new platform can help alleviate these ongoing workforce challenges.
“The whole process is designed to help radiologists complete tasks faster with assistance,” Kurian said in an interview. “It makes them more efficient, so they can actually see more images and treat more patients. Provide services.”
Kurian said the platform would not replace radiologists because doctors have “sole control” over their recommendations. Instead, he wants people to think of the platform as a secondary tool, like a microscope. The goal is to easily give radiologists the information they need and save them from spending 15 or 20 minutes searching for patient records, Kurian said.
Google Cloud and Bayer are not the only companies exploring artificial intelligence applications for medical imaging. In 2021, the Netherlands-based healthcare company Philips and Amazon Web Services said they were working on using artificial intelligence to analyze medical imaging data. Similarly, GE Healthcare published Blog article 2022, about the various artificial intelligence tools it has developed for radiology.
Keith Kirkpatrick, research director at Futurum Group, said the medical imaging artificial intelligence market does not yet have a clear leader because the technology is still very new.
“It’s really open,” Kirkpatrick told CNBC. “We’re still in the early stages of the game right now.”
Kirkpatrick, who was briefed on Tuesday’s announcement, said Google Cloud and Bayer’s radiology platforms must demonstrate a high level of technical accuracy, offer strong privacy and security controls and be easy to use to win in the field. Building trust with radiologists will be key, he added.
“Google has to make sure their technology is as bulletproof as possible,” Kirkpatrick said.
Google Cloud has been working with Bayer on its radiology platform for about five years. The foundation is built using existing Google Cloud solutions such as Vertex AI, Healthcare API and BigQuery, and Kurian said data on the platform is encrypted.
The two companies leverage Bayer’s expertise in radiology to ensure the product is easy for doctors to use. Bayer said sales of its radiation products last year were about 2 billion euros ($2.16 billion), according to a press release.
Even so, Guido Mathews, vice president of radiology at Bayer, said the platform represents Bayer’s attempt at a new business model. Rather than offering a new pill or physical product, a radiology platform is a service, which is uncharted territory for healthcare companies.
“Helping develop the model and helping deploy the radiology model, that’s a big step forward for us,” Matthews told CNBC.
He said Google Cloud and Bayer are exploring a number of different pricing models for the platform. Other healthcare organizations will begin testing on the platform this year and provide feedback.
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