REUTERS: Alphabet Inc's Google signed its biggest cloud computing customer in healthcare yet, according to an announcement on Monday (Nov 11), gaining with the deal datasets that could help it tune potentially lucrative artificial intelligence tools. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported Google teaming up with Ascension to collect personal health-related information of millions of Americans across 21 states. The partnership will also explore artificial intelligence and machine learning applications to help improve clinical effectiveness as well as patient safety, Ascension said in a statement. Google Cloud Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurian has made it a priority in his first year on the job to aggressively chase business from leaders in six industries, including healthcare. The company previously had touted smaller healthcare clients, such as the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has signed its biggest cloud computing customer in healthcare to date, in a deal giving it access to datasets that could help it tune potentially lucrative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Google and Ascension, which operates 150 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities across the United States, said the healthcare provider would move some data and analytics tools in its facilities to Google's servers. The deal was mentioned in Google's July earnings call, but drew scrutiny on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported on.wsj.com/2q3WCer that Google would gain personal health-related information of millions of Americans across 21 states. The Journal reported that the data involved in the project includes lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, along with patient names and dates of birth. Google said in a blog post on Monday that patient data "cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data."