Google to develop AI with firm to boost breast cancer screening

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has announced its partnership with iCAD, a leader in medical technology and cancer detection, to develop AI to improve the accuracy and expand the availability of breast cancer screenings.

This will be Google's first commercial agreement to license its mammography AI research model to be integrated into real-world clinical practice.

"iCAD will work toward validating and incorporating our mammography AI technology with its products for use in clinical practices with the goal of improving breast cancer detection and assessment of short-term personal cancer risk for the more than two million people globally diagnosed with breast cancer every year," Google said in a blogpost.

With the new technology, better screenings will improve health outcomes and reduce disparities for people around the world.

"By combining the power of our technologies and teams, we strengthen our fight against breast cancer and positively impact the lives of patients and their loved ones across the globe," said Stacey Stevens, President and CEO of iCAD. iCAD's breast imaging portfolio of tools and Google Health's mammography AI technology will allow radiologists to focus on their patients, according to the blogpost.

In addition to licencing their AI technology, iCAD will use Google Cloud's secure, scalable infrastructure, allowing them to rapidly expand cloud-hosted solutions into new regions. By doing so, iCAD can expand access to AI-based tools in underserved areas where infrastructure constraints may limit their ability to provide breast cancer screenings, said the blogpost.