Nova Scotia forms partnership with Google Cloud to improve digital health care

The Nova Scotia government is spending $42 million over five years to help improve access to health information through Google Cloud's search tools and artificial intelligence.

The province said Wednesday that three projects are in the works.

Premier Tim Houston said the partnership will offer advanced search capabilities to help people find information across the health system, which includes the Nova Scotia Health website and the YourHealthNS app.

Houston said the use of Google's search technology would also help reduce administrative work for doctors and make diagnosing illnesses easier.

"Nova Scotia is the first province to fully implement these solutions, but we're not the first organization to try them," said Houston. "We don't have to recreate every wheel, we just need to find the best wheel and bring it here to Nova Scotia."

Houston said the technology is already being used by organizations such as the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Telus Health in Vancouver and Highmark Health in Pittsburgh.

First program set for this fall

The search program for patients is expected to be operational this fall, the premier said, allowing online users to type in conversational questions to find what they're looking for.

"No need for an exact search of exact words, people will be able to ask a question or describe a health concern using free form text in a conversational way … and quickly find health information, health resources and services all from the province," Houston said.

Set to begin next spring, the second project is to give doctors and other health-care professionals quicker access to specific relevant information in a patient's health record, eliminating the need for extensive searches that can take time, health officials said.

The third project, set for the fall of 2025, will provide radiologists with preliminary imaging findings for chest X-rays in order to assist with patient diagnosis. It will give them access through the search program to thousands of anonymous chest X-rays for comparison purposes in making a diagnosis.

Dr. Matthew Clarke said the project will prove to be an efficient tool that will help provincial doctors access patient information. 

"I think it's significant time-saving and I think it's also making sure every possible piece of information I need, I have immediately available to me," Clarke said. 

Sam Sebastian, vice-president and country manager for Google Cloud Canada, said the company won't have any access to private health information as a result of operating the search tools. He also said none of Nova Scotia's health information would be used to help train its artificial intelligence to respond to the questions it gets.

"In the world of AI, data governance and privacy are paramount.... We've made it our mission to help keep organizations in control of their own data and to protect their own information," said Sebastian.

Houston said the deal with Google Cloud resulted from two prior meetings with the company, including one during a trip to California in January.

"When I saw what Google Cloud was working on, I said we have to have this," the premier told reporters.

'It won't improve things for a lot of Nova Scotians'

NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters she was unsure the project will help improve some elements of the health-care system that she says matter to Nova Scotians. 

"I don't know if that's going to shift the needle for Nova Scotians who are looking for access for primary care who are hoping for an open emergency room or a wait time of less than several hours," Chender said. 

Liberal health critic Kelly Regan said she didn't have a problem with the government's goal of providing more health information to the public, but she wonders what the overall effect will be in getting more people access to primary care.

"It is a bottleneck for Nova Scotians, they can't get the health care they need if they don't have a primary-care physician," Regan said. "This will improve things for some people, but it won't improve things for a lot of Nova Scotians."

It's estimated that about 160,000 Nova Scotians are currently without a family doctor.