Google, Mayo Clinic strike sweeping partnership on patient data

Mayo Clinic, one of medicine's most prestigious brands, announced Tuesday that it has struck a sweeping partnership with Google to store patient data in the cloud and build products using artificial intelligence and other technologies to improve care. The 10-year partnership is a testament to Google's expanding role in the U.S. health care system and gives Mayo greater access to the engineering talent and computing resources it needs to embed its expertise in algorithms and commercial devices. Google said it will open a new office in Rochester, a city whose economy, and very identity, is inextricably linked with Mayo, which invented the medical record more than a century ago and is now seeking to mine its data for new insights into patient care. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is driven in part by Mayo's desire to expand its use of artificial intelligence, which relies on modern computing environments where data can be securely shared and manipulated by physicians and researchers.