Google has unveiled new health initiatives and partnerships at its annual event, “The Check Up.” During the event, the Google Health team revealed updates on upcoming search features, health app tools, and AI-powered health research.
At “The Check Up” event, Google discussed new health initiatives and partnerships, including the latest version of its medical large language model called Med-PaLM. The company also talked about developing AI-assisted ultrasounds, cancer treatment, and tuberculosis screenings.
Last year, Google introduced Med-PaLM, an AI system designed to provide high-quality responses to medical questions. During testing, Med-PaLM received a passing score of more than 60% on multiple-choice style questions, which are similar to those used in U.S. medical licensing exams.
Google has announced the development of Med-PaLM 2, the latest version of its medical large language model. Med-PaLM 2 has been designed to answer medical questions and has demonstrated an accuracy rate of over 85%, scoring 18% higher than its earlier version. The technology has been tested on medical exam questions and performed at an “expert” level consistently.
According to Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam a research lead at Google Health, the company is testing the responses of Med-PaLM against those of real doctors and clinicians. The responses from Med-PaLM are evaluated for their factual accuracy, potential bias, and harm.
During a presentation, Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam, a research lead at Google Health, demonstrated how the updated version of Google’s medical language model, Med-PaLM 2, might answer medical questions. While some of the model’s responses were as accurate or even more detailed than those provided by clinicians, other answers were not as precise. The company is currently testing Med-PaLM 2’s responses against those of real doctors and clinicians to evaluate its factual accuracy, the potential for bias, and the risk of harm.
During the event, Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam from Google Health stated that the company is still learning about Med-PaLM 2’s capabilities.
Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam of Google Health said that the development of the Med-PaLM technology is being done responsibly and in a controlled environment due to the sensitive nature of medical information. Therefore, it may take some time before this technology is available to the average consumer.
In the future, Google plans to continue collaborating with experts and researchers to improve Med-PaLM, and more updates will be released about the technology.
Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam from Google Health highlighted the potential of the medical large language model, Med-PaLM 2, in answering medical questions. However, he emphasized the importance of responsible and ethical exploration of real-world applications given the sensitive nature of medical information. Google will continue to work with experts and share updates on Med-PaLM in the future.