Google is continuing to advance its plans in the health care industry with several new projects— including new partnerships and collaborations as well as three health care data engine accelerator launches.

Google announces new EHR partnerships

Google Cloud on Monday announced that it signed a deal with Epic to allow hospitals using the company's EHR to store patient records in the cloud.

According to Google Cloud officials, the new partnership will give health care organizations new tools to optimize care, build more efficiencies, and keep their data secure. The first health system to move its Epic patient records to Google Cloud will be Hackensack Meridian Health, Axios reports.

"We expect running Epic on Google Cloud will be simpler for our IT and developers, and will allow them to focus more on uncovering creative ways to improve patient care," said Kash Patel, Hackensack's chief digital information officer.

Google is also continuing its collaboration with Meditech, which was announced earlier this year. Through the collaboration, Google's Care Studio search technology will be embedded directly into the clinical workflow of Meditech's Expanse EHR.

According to STAT+, the goal of the collaboration is to make it faster and easier for providers to compile patient records across systems and formats, allowing them to access previous lab results and diagnoses and ultimately make better treatment decisions. So far, DCH Health System and Mile Bluff Medical Center have signed on as early adopters of the new integrated solution.

"This has the potential to be a very big quantum leap forward," said Meditech COO Helen Waters. "That's why we went to this next level of integration. It's not just plugging and playing or appending an app or some effort on the sidebar. What we're doing here is thoughtful and (incorporates the technology) within the work flows of clinicians."

"This feature takes our EHR to new heights in our ability to provide holistic, patient-centered care," said Billy Helmandollar, CIO of DCH Health. "It is positioning our doctors, nurses, and care providers to aggregate information on patients' past and present conditions faster, to improve the quality of care."

Currently, the pilot phase of Google and Meditech's collaboration is underway, and results are expected in late 2023.

Google launches 3 new health care data engine accelerators

Aside from its EHR partnerships, Google is also launching three new health care data engine (HDE) accelerators. The accelerators provide template dashboards to help health systems and payers use datasets to improve health equity, streamline patient flow management, and better analyze population health metrics for value-based care.

According to Healthcare Dive, Google originally launched its Healthcare Data Engine last year to allow organizations to analyze large amounts of clinical data and use industry-specific data, imaging, and privacy standards to quickly create insights. The goal of the engine is to give organizations a global view of patient records, rather than keeping information isolated in different datasets.

"Bringing data together from hundreds of sources, and applying AI and machine learning to it will unlock the power of data to make real-time decisions—whether it is around resource utilization, identifying high-risk patients, reducing physician burn out, or other critical needs," said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

The new HDE accelerators were created in partnership with several health systems, including LifePoint Health and Hackensack Meridian Health. They include tailored infrastructure development configurations and data models from BigQuery, Google's enterprise data warehouse, and will be available beginning in 2023.

"The ability to deliver next-generation care comes from effectively combining clinical expertise with the latest technological advancements—not solely one or the other," said David Dill, chairman and CEO LifePoint Health. "… This [HDE] partnership is a meaningful milestone in our pursuit of advancing community-based care, and we look forward to working with Google to fulfill our mission of Making Communities Healthier." (Reed, Axios, 11/14; Pifer, Healthcare Dive, 11/14; Business Wire, 11/14; Ross, STAT+ [subscription required], 11/14; PRNewswire, 9/13)