Google has extended the availability of its Cloud Healthcare API to improve healthcare interoperability. It also helps healthcare providers gain insights from numerous sources of medical data. Google said the API was designed to support and scale interoperability and patient access.
Google‘s Cloud Healthcare API enables healthcare organisations to collect and manage different types of medical data through the cloud, including Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, Health Level 7 v.2 and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource standards.
Data can be entered through analytics and machine learning, allowing healthcare providers to identify patterns that can help them improve patient care.
Access to data is now critical
Google notes that due to the highly fragmented nature of different healthcare systems, obtaining a clear picture from different datasets and sources is very difficult. It is hoped that by processing acquired data through AI and machine learning, certain patterns will be identified that have a positive effect on patients. This problem is especially important in this day and age as healthcare providers around the world are dealing with the corona virus. In these busy times, people in healthcare need to have access to the necessary data as quickly as possible.
“We know that the pandemic is affecting every aspect of the healthcare industry differently and that the needs of organizations are evolving rapidly,” said Google in a blog post. “Our goal is for our technology expertise to support your experts so that healthcare organizations can focus on delivering the best care to as many people as possible.”
Google launched its Cloud Healthcare API in an early access release in March 2018. The company has been working with the Mayo Clinic since 2019 to demonstrate how AI technology in the cloud can change healthcare delivery. Since then, Mayo Clinic has been using Google’s Cloud Healthcare API to enable the storage and interoperability of its clinical data, said Google.