Google’s AI-backed healthcare search tool now available for general use

Google Cloud has expanded its suite of AI tools for healthcare workers, rolling out a generative AI search tool that allows payers and providers to comb through patient notes and scan documents and other data for clinical information. 

The tool, Vertex AI Search for Healthcare, was first released for limited availability in March. The tech giant also expanded its Healthcare Data Engine, which provides a longitudinal record of patient data in an industry standard format. 

Google promises the tool has minimal risk of AI “hallucinations” — or outputting inaccurate responses. 

A survey conducted by Google Cloud and the Harris Poll found that clinicians and claims staff log 27 and 36 hours per week, respectively, on administrative tasks including documentation. 

Google says Vertex AI Search attempts to cut down that time by helping workers query multiple aspects of a patients’ medical record. The tool integrates with Gemini 1.5 Flash and MedLM – two of Google’s large language models — to search.  

Vertex was first teased during the HIMSS conference in March. It’s been used by health systems including Community Health Systems and Highmark Health. 

Google also promises Vertex AI will cite its sources and provide links to internal sources of information — a technique called “grounding” — to increase providers’ confidence in the tool’s answers, according to the release. 

The safeguard comes amid growing concern about whether generative AI might output false or misleading information. 

An August study, conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and scientists at clinical AI company Mendel, found generative AI hallucinated when performing healthcare queries. AI tools studied produced medical record summaries containing false or misleading statements, creating potential for providers to misdiagnose patients or recommend inappropriate treatment plans.