Ever Consult ‘Dr. Google’? Expect More Search Results for Medical Topics, Thanks to AI

Google has expanded its AI Overviews feature in search results for medical- and health-related queries, according to Google’s Chief Health Officer Dr. Karen DeSalvo. The announcement was made on Tuesday at the annual event The Checkup, where Google announces medical-related developments.

In a Google post explaining this AI Overviews change and other health AI-related announcements, Dr. DeSalvo wrote, “Taken together, these updates show the potential of AI to transform health outcomes across the globe, with more to come.”

Google expands AI features for medical topics

Google’s AI Overviews feature displays an AI-generated summary on search results at the top of the search results page for certain queries. The feature launched last year, and it is available for more health and medical queries.

In Dr. DeSalvo’s post, she said the changes were possible because of recent health-focused advancements on Gemini models. She added that Google will continue to improve the AI Overviews for health topics so they are “more relevant, comprehensive and continue to meet a high bar for clinical factuality.”

Google will continue to provide knowledge panels on common health topics, which appear in a bar on the right side of the search results panel. Using a combination of artificial intelligence and quality and ranking systems, Google will now expand these knowledge panels to cover more health topics, countries, and languages.

Google will also be launching a new feature called What People Suggest. This AI tool, which will initially be available on mobile devices in the U.S., will summarize what people with the same condition have recommended in online discussions and provide links that users can click on for further information.

5 more health-related updates from Google

Google also announced multiple other health and medical improvements during The CheckUp. The main updates are:

New Medical APIs are available globally through Health Connect.

The FDA finally approved the Loss of Pulse Detection feature for the Pixel Watch 3, which will roll out in the U.S. at the end of the month.

The newly launched AI co-scientist helps researchers parse large volumes of scientific literature.

Another new launch is the TxGemma collection of open AI models, which are intended to improve the efficiency of AI-powered drug discovery.

Google is working with the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology in the Netherlands to develop an AI tool called Capricorn, which will present treatment options and latest literature.

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