Google Unveils Health Features for Search, Android

On Tuesday, Google rolled out a bunch of new tools and features aimed at beefing up its healthcare offerings. They're sprucing up Google Search with better health query overviews, rolling out medical records APIs, and introducing some new AI models focused on health. Pretty cool, right?

When it comes to Search, Google's throwing AI and some fancy ranking systems into the mix to beef up those "knowledge panel" answers for thousands of health topics. They're also adding support for health queries in Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese on mobile devices. Sure, Search already had knowledge panels for stuff like the flu or a common cold, but this update? It's blowing up the number of topics those panels cover, according to Google.

Plus, they're launching a new Search feature called "What People Suggest" on mobile in the U.S. It's all about highlighting content from folks who've been through similar health issues. So, if you're curious about exercises for arthritis, What People Suggest will pull together insights from various forums across the web, all thanks to AI.

This "What People Suggest" thing kinda builds on what Google's already doing with personal health stories on YouTube. It looks like they're trying to keep folks from jumping ship to places like Reddit for health advice.

"While people come to Search to find reliable medical information from experts, they also value hearing from others who have similar experiences," Karen DeSalvo, Google's chief health officer, said in a blog post shared with TechCrunch. "Using AI, we're able to organize different perspectives from online discussions into easy-to-understand themes, helping you quickly grasp what people are saying."

Google also launched some new medical records APIs globally for its Health Connect platform on Android devices. These APIs are gonna help gather data from medical providers and let users see it across different apps. Plus, it'll make it easier to access this info on your phone, according to Google.

"These APIs enable apps to read and write medical record information like allergies, medications, immunizations, and lab results in standard FHIR format," DeSalvo explained in the blog post. "With these additions, Health Connect supports over 50 data types across activity, sleep, nutrition, vitals, and now medical records — making it easier to connect your everyday health data with data from your doctor's office."

In other health-related news, Google announced that the Loss of Pulse Detection feature on its Pixel Watch 3 smartwatch, which got the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will be available by the end of March in the U.S. This feature can spot when you've lost your pulse — maybe from a heart attack, respiratory or circulatory failure, an overdose, or poisoning — and it'll automatically call emergency services if you don't respond.

And hey, Google's not stopping there. They're also unveiling new open AI models for drug discovery called TxGemma. This follows their launch of a bunch of Gemini AI models for healthcare. TxGemma's set to hit the scene in the coming weeks.