Google’s digital transformation of India’s health sector | Bakul Patel | Faye D'Souza

Summary

This video discusses Google's efforts to enhance healthcare using technology, particularly in India. Google has partnered with the Indian government to improve public health infrastructure through AI, digital health IDs, and smart diagnostics. Tools like the Pixel 3 watch and Health Connect help track health data securely, while AI can diagnose conditions like tuberculosis through cough sounds. The conversation emphasizes privacy, equitable healthcare access, and Google's role in making healthcare more efficient for both patients and providers, particularly in rural areas.

Takeaways

• 💡 Google is deeply involved in healthcare, using technologies like AI to improve diagnosis and healthcare access globally.
• 📱 Google aims to individualize healthcare planning through data collected from devices like phones and wearables, enhancing diagnostics with AI.
• 🩺 Google's Pixel Watch offers highly accurate heart rate monitoring, and Health Connect securely manages personal health data on Android devices.
• 🌐 Google has partnered with India’s National Health Authority to develop digital health systems, such as integrating Health ID cards with Google Wallet.
• 🤖 AI-powered diagnostic tools, like detecting tuberculosis from cough sounds or X-rays, are becoming a reality, thanks to Google’s research and open-source projects.
• 🔐 Privacy and security are paramount: health data remains stored on personal devices or within hospital systems, not accessible to Google.
• 📊 Google is helping to streamline hospital administration with tools like the clinical intelligence engine, improving efficiency in patient care.
• 🛡️ Google is committed to minimizing bias in AI, especially when applied to healthcare diagnostics, ensuring that systems are fair and equitable.
• 🏥 AI and technology are being applied to bridge gaps in healthcare access, particularly for lower socio-economic groups, improving services for underserved populations.
• 🔍 AI is seen as a key player in addressing diseases like tuberculosis, cancer, and more, with advancements in multi-modal diagnostics combining audio and visual inputs.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Google's partnership with India in terms of public health?

Google's partnership with India focuses on improving public health through the use of digital technology, AI, and cloud-based solutions. They aim to help the country manage health data, offer personalized healthcare, and create solutions for diagnosing diseases such as tuberculosis.

How is Google integrating AI into healthcare in India?

Google is integrating AI into healthcare by using it to analyze data from wearables, smartphones, and diagnostics. AI tools are being used to diagnose conditions like tuberculosis through cough sound analysis and X-ray scanning, making diagnosis smarter and faster.

What role do wearables play in Google’s health initiatives?

Wearables, like the Pixel 3 Watch, play a significant role in Google’s health initiatives by collecting health data such as heart rate, walking balance, and other health metrics. This data is securely stored on users’ devices and is intended to improve personalized healthcare.

What privacy concerns are raised by Google’s health technology, and how is Google addressing them?

Privacy concerns revolve around the large amounts of personal health data collected by wearables and smartphones. Google addresses these concerns by ensuring that personal data is stored securely on the user's device and not accessible to others, including Google itself. The data is protected by passwords, pins, and fingerprints.

What is the Aishman Bharat Digital Mission, and how is Google involved?

The Aishman Bharat Digital Mission is a massive insurance initiative by the Indian government. Google is working to digitize health IDs, allowing individuals to store their health cards on Google Wallet for easier access when visiting healthcare facilities, enhancing the system’s efficiency.

How will Google’s tools benefit rural populations in India?

Google’s tools, such as the tuberculosis diagnostic system and the integration of health IDs, aim to make healthcare more accessible for rural populations. These technologies help diagnose diseases remotely and simplify access to treatment through digital IDs, improving the overall healthcare experience for rural patients.

What is Google’s approach to improving hospital administration through AI?

Google is helping hospital administrations by providing tools like the Clinical Intelligence Engine, which simplifies tasks such as accessing patient records and managing handovers between medical staff. This reduces administrative burdens and allows more focus on patient care.

How is Google addressing AI bias in healthcare systems?

Google is carefully mitigating AI bias by ensuring that AI tools are trained on diverse data and refined for local contexts. They are particularly focused on equity in healthcare, aiming to ensure that AI serves people across different socioeconomic, racial, and identity-based groups.

How does Google’s Clinical Intelligence Engine support healthcare providers?

The Clinical Intelligence Engine helps healthcare providers by offering a quick, intelligent summary of a patient’s medical history, allowing doctors to create better care plans without needing to manually search through files. This enhances efficiency and care quality.

What specific diseases is Google focusing on in India with its AI technology?

Google is focusing on diagnosing diseases such as tuberculosis, diabetes, and cancers like breast cancer in India. AI-driven diagnostic tools are being used to analyze X-rays, detect TB through cough sounds, and potentially expand to other diseases in the future.

Outlines

00:00

📱 Revolutionizing Healthcare with Wearable Devices

The paragraph discusses the growing use of wearable devices and smartphones for tracking health metrics, such as heart rate and walking balance. These devices gather vast amounts of data, sometimes raising concerns about privacy. Google is working on public health initiatives, especially in India, focusing on AI-driven healthcare solutions. Bakul Patel, a senior executive at Google, highlights the potential of using AI for personalized healthcare diagnosis based on data from wearable devices and how Google aims to help people live healthier, longer lives.

05:00

🤝 Google's Partnership with the Indian Government

Google is collaborating with the Indian government on several public health projects. A notable initiative is the integration of health IDs into Google Wallet, enabling seamless access to healthcare services. The open-source tools provided by Google help developers adopt the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) infrastructure more easily. Additionally, the Health ID system will be secure, requiring passwords or fingerprints, ensuring privacy protection. The ID will store essential medical information, reducing the need for physical documentation at hospitals.

10:01

🌾 Empowering Rural Healthcare through AI and Digital Records

Google’s technology supports not only urban but also rural healthcare. For instance, a farmer diagnosed with tuberculosis using AI tools can use the health ID to access hospital care. The farmer's medical history is stored securely within hospital systems, potentially hosted on Google Cloud but inaccessible to Google itself. The integration of AI can streamline hospital administration, reducing manual tasks like filing paperwork. Google's clinical intelligence engine can simplify patient records for medical professionals, allowing them to focus on care, though it's customized and managed by hospitals.

15:02

🤖 Addressing Bias in AI-Driven Healthcare

The conversation shifts to concerns about AI bias in healthcare, a pressing issue globally. Google recognizes the risks and emphasizes its focus on responsible AI use, particularly in low-risk areas like administrative tasks. The company is committed to equity, ensuring that AI models do not disproportionately serve one group over another, including those from different socio-economic backgrounds. This commitment includes building localized AI models to ensure relevancy and accuracy, particularly in healthcare settings like rural areas.

Keywords

💡Wearables

Wearables are devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers that can monitor various health metrics, such as heart rate and movement. In the video, wearables are highlighted as tools that many people use to track their health, collecting data that can both aid in better health management and raise concerns about privacy.

💡AI (Artificial Intelligence)

AI refers to computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as diagnosing diseases. In the video, AI is described as a key technology for the future of healthcare, enabling faster and more personalized diagnoses by analyzing data from devices like phones and wearables.

💡Google Health

Google Health is a division within Google focused on developing healthcare-related products and services. The video discusses Google Health's mission to improve global healthcare using its existing platforms like Android, YouTube, and its cloud services, integrating AI and wearables for better health management.

💡ABDM (Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission)

ABDM is India's digital public health initiative aimed at creating a nationwide health infrastructure, including digital health IDs. The video explains that Google is partnering with India's government to integrate health IDs into Google Wallet, allowing easier access to healthcare services for citizens.

💡Privacy

Privacy concerns arise from the vast amount of personal health data collected by digital devices. The video discusses the challenge of balancing technological advancements with privacy, especially when dealing with sensitive health information from millions of users, including those using Google Wallet for their health IDs.

💡TB (Tuberculosis)

Tuberculosis is a major health issue in India. In the video, Google’s AI tools, in partnership with Swasa, are described as being able to detect TB through cough sounds or X-ray analysis, showcasing the potential of AI to assist in diagnosing widespread diseases in low-resource settings.

💡Health ID

Health ID refers to a unique digital identifier for accessing health services. In India, under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, Google is working to integrate Health IDs into Google Wallet. This allows people to carry their digital health credentials securely on their phones, making healthcare access more streamlined.

💡Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure provides a secure and scalable platform for storing and processing health data. In the video, it’s mentioned that hospitals can store patients’ health records on Google Cloud, ensuring that the data is private and secure, accessible only by the hospitals and the patients themselves.

💡Clinical Intelligence Engine

The Clinical Intelligence Engine is a tool developed by Google that helps healthcare providers quickly access and understand patient records, enabling faster decision-making in care. The video highlights how this engine simplifies the administrative burden for healthcare workers, allowing them to focus more on patient care.

💡Equity

Equity in healthcare refers to ensuring that all individuals, regardless of socioeconomic status, have equal access to quality healthcare. The video emphasizes Google Health’s focus on addressing healthcare disparities, particularly in India, by using AI and other technologies to provide care to underserved populations.

Highlights

Google is collaborating with India to provide large-scale public health solutions using AI and mobile data.

Google’s partnership with India focuses on improving health diagnostics using smartphones, wearables, and AI to personalize healthcare.

Google’s Pixel Watch includes the most accurate heart rate sensor available to date, emphasizing the role of wearables in health monitoring.

Google has developed an AI model to detect tuberculosis (TB) from cough sounds, demonstrating innovation in early disease detection.

Google Health’s mission is to enable everyone to live healthier and longer lives by leveraging its existing platforms like YouTube, Search, and Android.

Google's Health Connect allows users to securely store personal health data on their smartphones without external access.

A key part of the initiative is to give caregivers better tools through AI, providing them with important diagnostic and health history insights.

Google is integrating India's Health ID system into Google Wallet, allowing people to carry their health IDs on their phones for easier access to medical care.

Google ensures that no external party, including itself, can access personal health data stored on user devices without consent.

Google’s focus on privacy protection involves securing health information using passcodes, fingerprints, and ensuring data remains on the user's device.

Google is working on improving hospital administration systems through AI, allowing caregivers to spend more time on patient care rather than paperwork.

AI bias is a serious concern for Google, and they are taking steps to reduce bias by training models with localized data for more accurate diagnostics.

Google’s clinical intelligence engine helps healthcare providers access and analyze patient history more efficiently, minimizing manual effort.

Google has partnered with various organizations, including the National Health Authority, to digitize India’s healthcare system for more inclusive care.

The collaboration with organizations like Armaan has shown that AI can predict and intervene in cases like expectant mothers who are at risk of falling out of healthcare systems.

Transcripts

well it's an interesting time to talk

about health um now a lot of us use

variables we use our cell phones to

track various things about our health um

you know our phones and our watches can

now check our heartbeat check the

balance with which we're walking um

actually keep track of various things to

do with health that sometimes helps us

manage better sometimes makes us

uncomfortable about how much data these

devices are actually collecting there's

an inter in development now from Google

Google is actually working very largely

in public health and is now teamed up

with India uh to provide large scale

Public Health to people across the

country this conversation is to

understand how that will actually work

what the Condors of that uh you know

understanding is and whether it will

improve things for India or is it likely

to make those of us who take privacy

very uh seriously a little more

uncomfortable to help us understand this

and answer those questions for me bakul

Patel who's the senior director of

global digital Health strategy and uh

regulatory Health strategy at Google

joins us right now um Mr Patel thank you

for joining us um I understand to put it

very fundamentally for our audience to

um you know to sort of come up to speed

with what you're discussing right now

Google is working on a future in which

healthc care diagnosis and planning can

be individualized to each of us using

using the data that's collected by our

phones and our variables and various

Diagnostics is that correct and you'll

be using AI to make it smarter and

faster yeah fa I think really good but

you're raising a really futuristic

question and this is really true and I

think once you know we wish we can sort

of help people diagnose a lot of

conditions but let me go one step before

that we're actually doing this today

already in India and our mission and

Google Health you know what is Google

health is pretty much like you know it's

a part of everything Google does and

what does that mean for health so you

aim to bring everyone everywhere live

longer in in a longer healthier lives so

that's sort of the mission statement for

us and the the work that we do at at

Google Heth is build products that

people already use every day from search

to YouTube to Android to cloud and

include that includes variables as well

right so I think you mentioned variables

earlier this is really really powerful

you know as you start thinking about

pixel 3 watch watch that was just

released that has the most accurate

heart rate sensor um built built as of

today you know if you think about

Android you know Health Connect is

actually where people can connect their

data their personal data securely on

their phones and I think those are the

kind of things examples and I can I can

going into a lot more examples but just

to give you a flavor of Google is

involved in health today and it's been

involving in a very long time I think

the future what you just painted is more

about the future capabilities of how AI

is going to transform Healthcare in the

future right but there's we are in the

we're in the middle of that Journey not

in the futuristic world yet but I can

give you examples like you know we our

recent research which is open source and

it's a foundation model which others can

build from and we we partnering with a

with a organization called swasa that

can actually detect TB from cough sounds

now that's phenomenal re right if you

can imagine that or you can take X-rays

and just run it through the AI tools and

detect somebody has TB or not and those

are the kind of things that our research

becoming open source and giving people

an enabling sort of technology that can

take it to the next level

um for actually detecting or diagnosing

diseases as as you can imagine but

that's not that's like personally for

people right if you just think about it

from that perspec but then if you think

about the way sort of our our technology

platforms are across used by many many

people across the world and one of the

key things is information giving people

the right information of the right time

is really really important and I think

our our platforms do that really really

well and if you just think about you

know then think about okay what do it

what does that mean for the caregiver

because they are an important piece of

the puzzle in health care itself right

and just thinking through that and

saying what can we do to enable those

caregivers and this diagnostic tools I

just outlined are the tools that can do

and then you have other partners like

government of India and National Health

Authority that that is trying to sort of

build the ecosystem in the architecture

for digital digital Health to become

real

so those are kind of the things that I

would say that we are working towards

and working are working currently

on what are you doing with government of

India right

now so there's a couple things right so

either one is directly with government

of India we have an open source project

our Google research team who and

provided a set of tools that is open

source that allows for ABA um allows for

the the abdm infrastructure to be easily

adopted by developers who are trying to

connect to the infrastructure that's

that abdm so that's the the the what we

call it is a wrapper that allows

integration integration to the system at

scale much quicker because we build all

the mechanics that goes with it really

and open source developers can sort of

take it and implement it really quickly

that's like number one number two I

think I will say that you know up ID I

think that's a that's a big push from

from thetion national health authority

to have every every Indians to have that

we partnered with

aare um who is partnering with the NH

and now you're going to take Hab IDs and

you'll see this in the next year um and

that H ID IDs will not be available on

Google Wallet on your Android phones so

what do what does that mean what what id

is that how does it work just think

about as a health idid right and that ID

is associated with people who

participating people with the government

of India who are connected for the

health information that that the

government is is providing to the people

so what what we are doing here is we're

partnering with eare which is a company

that makes it easy for for the IDS to

show up on Google Apple Google Wallet

like and that wallet is now secure and

and we'll be requiring people to like

use passport and pins and fingerprints

to sort of access that so it's we we we

keep in top of mind that security is a

and privacy is a key thing will be on

the ID

itself well so if I understood correctly

the aishman bhat U digital Mission which

is basically an in a massive insurance

policy that's offered to people of India

from government across the board the

digitization portion of it uh will

involve an ID that can that you are

working on adding to the Google Wallet

so people can just carry it around in

their phones and when they arrive at the

hospital they don't need any other

document ation except what's already on

that phone just exactly you're exactly

right right making it so easy for people

to give that give access to that ID that

people can just walk around walk and go

to go to the care facilities with

that uh bu I have two uh you know

questions about privacy here which is

obviously going to come up because on

one hand what you're going to have is

access to an enormous amount of

healthcare data of Indian citizens u i I

do understand that this will be

extremely useful in studies for cancer

for tuberculosis for diabetes issues

that Indians face in perhaps the largest

numbers in the world right now the

second aspect is private data of every

single individual that's currently being

logged on their phones and their

variables that will that Google will

then be able to harness how are you

going to respect the privacy of every

single Indian including the poorest who

perhaps if were given the choice would s

sacrifice privacy for healthcare but as

an organization as Google how will you

prioritize their

privacy let me just be extremely clear

right I think when we surface Health ID

cards just imagine that as health ID

cards on Google Wallet we're not

connecting and seeing their personal

data it is on the phone for the users to

sort of maintain and it's not available

for anybody else outside of the phone um

to sort of have access access to that so

I think that is sort of one of the

fundamental things we should think about

and the I surfacing of ID is more about

like making it easy and accessible for a

lot of people um and and think about

this as you know you store your your

bunch of files your pictures on your

phone that is not available for anybody

else outside of you in your phone and

it's protected by a password so that's

exactly how it is the data does not

leave

the phone a smartphone or the device

itself it just stays in there and it

doesn't have access nobody else has

access other than you as as an

individual so from that perspective and

when I mentioned earlier like people

will have to like use their passcode and

pins and fingerprints is really bring

giving that purposeful protection layer

that people cannot just really nearly

show up and just you know let people

others sort of accidentally use their

so if I've understood this correctly I

mean we are talking about let's let's

talk about an individual farmer um you

know who lives in rural India who's used

your uh partnership with ap poo to be

diagnosed with tuberculosis and then

uses the aishman bat card on his Google

phone to go to the hospital and aail of

treatment and I do understand you're

also working at uh improving

administrative um you know details

inside of hospitals which means

handovers between nurses actual data

actual you know um administrative work

does all of this eventually form a file

of medical history for this individual

farmer and where does that file rest who

has access to it yeah

so the health records for a person is

with the hospital systems itself and

even if they were within on a Google

Cloud Google Cloud basis on a Google

Cloud you can imagine a a domain that's

been created for that for that customer

in this case there's a big large

hospital they will have their own domain

and that domain itself is private to

that customer nobody has access like

there's no other people person including

Google have access to that to that

information that's lies into that that

cloud infrastructure and it could be any

other Cloud not just Google but any

Cloud INF that's how the technology

works right so that that is important to

understand that within the health system

itself it's private within and all that

information that the farmer actually now

goes and exchanges with the you know

hospital system XYZ it will be in the

hospital system XYZ just like you know

imagine you know you have paper records

that somebody writes notes on and keep

in a file in in a hospital that is the

digital version of that stays within the

hospital I do want to understand how

you're working to help people in

administration um I

my understanding is that Google is

working to help Hospital Administration

uh dedicate more time to care and take

less time out of actually filling out

those forms and those files what is it

you're doing exactly yeah so um so

what I don't know if I I'm going to use

jargon here but let excuse me for that

there's a clinical intelligence engine

which is actually another tool that

Google has developed and we actually

allowed it's it's kind of foundation

model that our customers like like a

hospital system will actually take that

and build it for their own systems and

that intelligent engine you can imagine

I'm going to make it very simple imagine

you they have built it and they have

access to the patient record or a

patient X is showing up you can the

engine can sort of take it take that

record for that person and make it

simple enough for the providers to

understand the history what was what was

last done with the person

and so they can create a plan of action

or care for that per for that person who

has been visiting so that's instead of

so the alternative to that is somebody

has to go scroll or flip pages to make

sure that they have seen the history for

that patient now this engine that I'm

talking about clinical intelligence

engine is providing exactly that

intelligence into a person's record but

it's remember this is built by the

hospital system not by Google we

provided the base technology that you

know you can think about that's a

guiding tool that that hospitals can

use if we're using AI for Diagnostics uh

one of the things that we're concerned

about when it comes to generative AI

across the world is the um you know so

the sort of bias that gets worked into

the Learning System it could be far more

dangerous when we're talking about

health and Diagnostics is what is Google

doing to mitigate that risk of AI just

Mis learning some biases already

industry we take this extremely

seriously F I think at Google we want to

be bold but we also be want to be

extremely responsible and we can't do it

alone I think generative AI is such a

such a frontier that we we're trying to

get across very carefully that's why I

feel that when we use these Technologies

it's better to use in lowrisk settings

like administrative sort of simplifying

or just explaining what has happened

from a nurse Handover uh systems like

that there that can be rechecked and

checked by humans as as you can see so

this happen and when we start talking

about as we how we start building

Technologies together with other people

we going to learn what is it that these

generative AI tools are going to do how

are you going to partner how do you sort

of minimize this bias Equity is actually

one of the Paramon things that Google

health is really really focused on and I

think it's inequity is a very broad word

right I can imagine from a socio

economic structure from a race and

identity structures and any many other

dimensions of that and I think we need

to make sure this Technologies are

serving everyone not just one forgive me

I'm going to stop you here because of

the Jon but I don't understand how

you're going to do that um how will you

make sure and let me let me put this

basically in India we have excellent

state-of-the-art healthcare for people

who have money

but for people who don't have money the

reality is very very

different how will you with AI bridge

that Gap or at least in the very least

make sure the Gap is not

widened yeah I I I think you you sort

heard me say this right the equity is

beyond just race and identity it's more

about socio economic as well just kind

of what you're alluding to right there's

an social economic strata that is

different than the other strata does

that exist and I think if you think

about care and access to care I think

that's when when I spoke about our goal

to help Millions everywhere have access

to healthare using our technology that's

one of the things I think we need to

focus on and I think that is that is

driven by information that's driven by

insights and that's driven by

infrastructure if you think about those

things and you hit it from and we sort

of look at it from what does the

consumers need what does the caregivers

need what do the health infrastructure

need is kind of where we are sort of

working towards now you and let me go

back to your original question about

training models with data and if you if

you start thinking about training models

with data you have to be careful not

every model is US usable for everything

in fact we have uh our models is is when

we say Foundation models they're based

on a foundation of data that's that's

going to be trained on but the Next

Level The Last Mile would have to be

done in the local setting local sort of

aspects Etc and this is this is kind of

how we are looking at amplifying what

are the things that we could do better

in different settings and that's one way

to think about it but also if you if you

look at some of the projects that we

have done in in in understanding how um

I don't know if you heard the project

Arman or not where where we help

expectant mothers yeah so and that's

where technology can actually I mean if

you heard about their product I think

but that's what technology can predict

which which mother is actually going to

fall out of the system and can it

actually be can we use the workers the

the call centers to sort of reach out to

those people to help bridge that Gap and

that that is the power of Technology

right it's not going to be just about

training it's not just going to be about

you know Building Technology I think we

need to build to together with people to

make sure that we are addressing those

gaps what areas of healthcare

specifically do you believe um AI will

be most useful for in India are we

talking tuberculosis are we skin cancer

breast cancer what Diagnostics or what

specialities will it uh be deployed most

in I I I think all of them are pry Prime

game I think this is this goes those

goes in line with with you know TV is

one of the of the things that that we

are focused on today and as we learn

more as we sort of have information that

can build and build some of those

Foundation models of research sort of

goes beyond I mean I don't know if you

heard but you probably hear this um

today in terms of where we we're talking

about you know we have a foundation

model called here

H that we are working with a company

with an organization called swasa that's

trying trying to detect TB from cuff

sounds how exciting is that right so now

you have this multimodal capabilities

not just about x-rays which was done

many many many many years ago and Contin

to being done but you are now seeing

advantages of being able to hear being

able to see and being able to sort of go

forward with with these kind of

diagnostic but the science is still

evolving right I think we still need to

work through some of these things it

needs to be Pro out need to be make it

more available for General general

population so I I feel like we are in

the beginnings of that world of how Ai

and this phenomenal technology that can

now hear and see can actually be used

for this

diagnosis all right uh thank you so much

for speaking with me here uh I do

appreciate the conversation and um we

look forward to uh the data that or or

the technology that Google hopes to

deploy in India we keep a close eye on

it uh for our audience remember like

share subscribe and sign up for our

membership thank you for watching