By Gabrielle Mostello
Google Cloud shared on Monday that it has added generative AI (genAI) features to its Vertex AI Search tool to give healthcare providers a more thorough picture of a patient’s health. The updates include a feature that analyses tables, charts and diagrams for valuable insights, along with the introduction of Gemini 2.0.
The new multimodal capabilities will help clinicians work more efficiently, according to Aashima Gupta, global director of healthcare strategy and solutions at Google Cloud. “Multimodal analysis processes diverse sources of patient data, like medical images and genetic information, for a more comprehensive understanding and improved decision-making,” she said.
A multimodal update
Vertex AI Search is a tool housed within Google’s Vertex AI platform that healthcare businesses can use to build and deploy AI-powered search experiences that retrieve information from various forms of medical data. With its new Visual Q&A offering, users can upload tables, charts and diagrams directly as an input, without having to first convert them into text. The tool can also extract information from medical forms when listed in tables. The integration of Gemini 2.0 will enable Vertex AI to deliver information faster, with better accuracy.
Counterpart Health, which makes AI-powered software for physicians, announced on Monday that it would be integrating Vertex AI Search for healthcare into Counterpart Assistant, its flagship product. Counterpart Assistant brings real-time, patient-tailored insights to physicians’ workflows.
“The advancements in Vertex AI Search for healthcare provide us with powerful new tools to achieve [our] goals,” said chief medical officer at Counterpart Health David Tsay. “Multimodal AI capabilities will enable clinicians to integrate diverse types of clinical data sources, providing a more comprehensive understanding of their patients’ health and facilitating personalised care management.”
Electronic health record company Meditech expects the current updates to “further enhance [its] ability to deliver cutting-edge tools that empower clinicians and improve workflows,” said chief marketing and nursing executive Cathy Turner.
Founder and CEO of AI voice solution firm Suki Punit Soni also expressed enthusiasm for the new genAI features, stating that they “complement Suki’s mission to make healthcare technology invisible and assistive.”
“By combining Suki’s expertise in ambient AI with Google Cloud’s powerful multimodal capabilities, we are equipping clinicians with instant access to the critical information they need, enabling them to deliver the best possible patient care,” he said.
