Google is ramping up its plan to put its AI in the hands of doctors (GOOG, GOOGL)

Larry Page

Google is expanding program that seeks to learn whether AI technology can reduce the time doctors spend on note taking.
The company recently posted four job opening for Medical Digital Assist, which is overseen by Google Brain.

Google is devoting more resources to a research project that seeks to determine whether artificial intelligence can free doctors from the laborious and time-sucking chore of taking notes during medical examinations.

According to a report Thursday in CNBC, Google is expanding a program called Medical Digital Assist, which is overseen by Google Brain.

Google recently posted four job openings that describe building the “next gen clinical experience...while using audio and touch technology to improve the accuracy and availability of care,” the report says.

In November, Google said in a blog post that it would begin working with doctors and researchers at Stanford University to explore whether Automatic Speech Recognition and other AI technologies could help lighten the note-taking load for physicians.

Studies show that doctors often spend more hours of their workday documenting their patients’ medical histories or treatment plans than they do actually treating patients.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and many other companies are racing to develop AI tech with real-world applications.

But as anyone who has used Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant — the top digital assistants for consumers — can attest, the technology is still far from perfect. Whether Google can make a professional version of its technology attain the level that people would trust it with vital medical information remains to be seen.

The technology must be able to listen to conversations between patients and doctors, understand what is relevant and then accurately transcribe it.

CNBC said that one of the jobs posted, for a medical assist product manager, wants a candidate that “can advance its research by driving business deals.”

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