Health systems worldwide are striving for better outcomes, lower costs, and an improved experience for both patients and clinicians. However, progress is constrained by a global shortage of clinical experts, with the World Health Organization predicting a shortfall of more than 10 million health workers by 2030.

While AI is often seen as the key to bridging this gap, it has not yet been able to fully meet the needs of clinicians and patients. That's why, today, we are announcing our AI co-clinician research initiative, to explore how AI could better amplify doctors’ expertise and deliver higher quality care to patients.

At Google DeepMind, our journey in medical AI has evolved from mastering examination-style tests of medical knowledge with MedPaLM, to matching physician performance in text-based simulated medical consultations with AMIE, including in real-world feasibility trial settings. We also have a long history of studying how clinicians and AI systems might work together.

We hypothesize that the next evolution of healthcare delivery will entail “triadic care” where AI agents can help patients in their care journeys under the clinical authority of their physician. Medicine has always been a team sport, and AI agents can bring more teammates onto the field: extending clinicians' reach while ensuring they retain judgment and control.

This serves as the foundation of our AI co-clinician research initiative: AI designed to function as a collaborative member of the care team that interacts with patients under expert clinical supervision. We designed and evaluated AI co-clinician in both clinician and patient-facing settings.

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