Technology giant Google announced that it has developed an artificial intelligence-based scan within the scope of combating tuberculosis (TB) disease. With this technology, Google aims to improve the screening of the disease, which affects 10 million people a year, and to be effective in catching and eliminating the disease early. This tool, which uses AI, is used before a more expensive screening test. Google’s healthcare plans with AI-assisted screening save up to 80 percent per positive TB case detected.
Health data have become more valuable in pandemic
While health data is becoming more and more valuable with the effect of the pandemic, Google doesn’t want to lag behind its competitors such as Apple and Samsung. Software developers started to contribute to the fight against the virus and saving lives with the technical tools they produced. In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple have also started working together on a study that enables the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and healthcare organizations to reduce the spread of the virus, as they put user privacy and security at the center of the design.
With the effect of the pandemic, Google wants to contribute to the wearable product experience and technology platform, especially with Fitbit. Transferred more than 130 of its 700 Google Health employees to Search and Fitbit. Google continues to regularly innovate in the focus on health. In December, Google Health launched a new Android app that streamlines the onboarding process for consumers and shows them how their data is used for research. Google Health worked with the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to pilot a new tool that helps prepare patients for healthcare visits.
Mobile app to detect skin cancer
Explaining that it is working on a tool that will help users find answers to dermatology questions, Google has officially announced the AI Dermatology App, an application that can detect skin problems with visuals and identify potential diagnoses. The application, which will be offered for the first time in European countries, can now identify approximately 228 dermatological diseases from acne to skin cancer. And this number is expected to increase in the future as Google’s healthcare investments keep growing. However, it is worth remembering that the application is still in the testing phase.
Stating that they will continue to contribute to the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO), Google plans to develop this study with its partners to expand the project with two separate research studies with Apollo Hospitals in India and the Center of Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) later this year.