Prognosis

Google Is Training Machines to Predict When a Patient Will Die

AI advances by the 'Medical Brain' team could help the internet giant finally break into the health-care business 

Created by illustrator Maria Chimishkyan for Bloomberg Prognosis

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A woman with late-stage breast cancer came to a city hospital, fluids already flooding her lungs. She saw two doctors and got a radiology scan. The hospital’s computers read her vital signs and estimated a 9.3 percent chance she would die during her stay.

Then came Google’s turn. An new type of algorithm created by the company read up on the woman -- 175,639 data points -- and rendered its assessment of her death risk: 19.9 percent. She passed away in a matter of days.