Google, hospital chain partner in push to boost efficiency

Google and HCA Healthcare, a national hospital chain, on Wednesday announced a partnership aimed at boosting efficiency in medical care.

“The partnership with Google Cloud is designed to help create a secure and dynamic data analytics platform for HCA Healthcare and enable the development of next generation operational models focused on actionable insights and improved workflows,” HCA Healthcare said in a joint announcement with Google.

The multiyear partnership will work to take medical devices and digital health records and store them with Google Data, the companies said.

“The cloud can be an accelerant for innovation in health, particularly in driving data interoperability, which is critical in streamlining operations and providing better quality of care to improve patient outcomes,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “We are honored to partner with HCA Healthcare on this unique opportunity to be at the forefront of advancing care through the power of real-time data availability to support clinical and operational workflows.”

Along with data consolidation, the companies are looking to develop better algorithms that will “empower physicians, nurses and others with workflow tools, analysis and alerts on their mobile devices to help clinicians respond quickly to changes in a patient’s condition.”

“Next-generation care demands data science-informed decision support so we can more sharply focus on safe, efficient and effective patient care,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer of HCA Healthcare. “We view partnerships with leading organizations, like Google Cloud, that share our passion for innovation and continual improvement as foundational to our efforts.”

The companies say privacy and security will remain a top issue during the process as Jonathan Perlin, HCA’s chief medical officer, said identifying information on patient records would be taken off before sharing with Google data scientists, The Wall Street Journal reported.