- Google and Mayo partnered for a 10-year strategic partnership
- They’ll be leveraging AI-algorithms to simplify radiotherapy planning
- Google, Mayo seeks FDA approval of medical devices using AI algorithms
Google is a leading pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and its applications, either by software or hardware. It has recognized AI’s ability to contribute to healthcare and medicine. Google Health has partnered with Mayo Clinic to apply AI technology to the cancer radiotherapy treatment process. Google cites that AI could help speed up the ‘time-consuming and manual’ preparation needed for radiotherapy treatment. The project will be the first initiative in their strategic partnership.
The Rochester, Minnesota-based hospital, Mayo Clinic, has signed a 10-year strategic partnership with Google to accelerate innovation through digital tech. Mayo Clinic’s radiation oncologists, dosimetrists, and service design professionals will work together with Google Health’s AI, medical image segmentation, and design experts. The companies will also use Google Cloud and data analytics to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
AI’s contribution to Radiotherapy Planning
Cian Hughes, an informatics lead at Google Health, spoke about their partnership with Mayo Clinic and their targeted goals. Their expertise in medical imaging analysis using Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning can help tackle the task of segmenting and contouring radiotherapy scans. Their first step would be to create and validate an algorithm that can establish healthy tissue and organs from tumors. The algorithm is developed using de-identifying data. It will boost patient outcomes and reduce the time taken to plan radiation treatment.
Google and Mayo’s regulatory experts are exploring potential approaches to get the US Food and Drug Administration approval. They seek permission for medical devices incorporating these algorithms. The key class-determining factor for the medicine would be the accuracy of algorithms. The level of human intervention required could be another factor.
Google Health and Mayo Clinic are using U-Net, a deep learning algorithm. It provides the detail of tiny pixels that are essential in the study of the tumors. User experience experts at Google Health are working with Mayo’s service to incorporate these algorithms into the clinical workflow. Presently, the AI project is in the research stages, and the algorithms are not being used for the real-life treatment of patients.
