Google's Cloud Healthcare API, which is aimed at making patient data interoperable between various health care systems and apps, is now generally available
- Google Cloud is moving to open up its Healthcare API. — The company says the tool will make it easier for health systems to connect and share data in a unified view.
CNBCChristina Farr
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's healthcare push had been scattered across projects until February 2020, when sources reported the work was being unified under Google Health with over 500 employees led by former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg. The API itself was not new — Fitbit signed on back in 2018 to pipe consumer device data to doctors via the Cloud Healthcare API.
General availability is the step that turns that groundwork into infrastructure other health systems can build on, and it set up the pipeline of follow-on products in the corpus: the HCA algorithm partnership, Medical Imaging Suite, Health Connect, and Vertex AI Search for clinical records.
First-order effects
Health systems and app developers can now integrate patient data sharing on Google Cloud without waiting for private preview terms, making Google a direct interoperability vendor to hospitals rather than just a pilot partner like Fitbit.
Second-order effects
A working data layer becomes the substrate for everything Google sells hospitals afterward — the HCA partnership for operational algorithms and later the Medical Imaging Suite all presuppose unified records flowing through Google's cloud.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, cloud providers compete for healthcare by owning the interoperability layer first, then layering AI products on top — which is exactly the sequence Vertex AI Search's clinical-records features extend in 2023.
The trend: Healthcare is becoming a beachhead market where cloud platforms win by standardizing data plumbing first and monetizing AI services built on it second.
Nice move by @google health. I am glad to see that Google is exposing their API and offering it during the time of crisis. At the same time, they are also competing with other companies that are offering similar solutions to help...https://www.linkedin.com/ ... https://cloud.goog…
I've been wanting something like this. I know the digital rights crowd are gonna scream about privacy. But I see a bunch of clinicians and the person responsible for maintaining continuity of care is... me. https://www.cnbc.com/...
“People are now recognizing that there's only way to get though this period and that is to collaborate,” says @MayoClinic's @jhalamka. To free up patient data from EHRs, @googlecloud is making its healthcare API generally available to health systems: https://www.cnbc.com/... http…
COVID-19 underscores the Interoperability Imperative for HealthIT. We're proud to provide healthcare organizations with the tools like Google Cloud Healthcare API to help them make informed, data-driven decisions so that caregivers...https://www.linkedin.com/ ... https://cloud.go…
Cloud Healthcare API is now Generally Available ! Looking forward to see it used for data interoperability, improved provider and patient experiences as well as analytics and AI applications. https://cloud.google.com/...
Some interoperability news: The Google Healthcare API is now live and generally available. I spoke with @aneeshchopra about why it's critical in this time that public health can get data out of EHRs. https://www.cnbc.com/...