Google Is Training Machines to Predict When a Patient Will Die -- Bloomberg

For a less sensationalist overview of related work, see Scalable and accurate deep learning with electronic health records (Jeff Dean et al. in Nature)

"What impressed medical experts most was Google’s ability to sift through data previously out of reach: notes buried in PDFs or scribbled on old charts. The neural net gobbled up all this unruly information then spat out predictions. And it did it far faster and more accurately than existing techniques. Google’s system even showed which records led it to conclusions.

Hospitals, doctors and other health-care providers have been trying for years to better use stockpiles of electronic health records and other patient data. More information shared and highlighted at the right time could save lives -- and at the very least help medical workers spend less time on paperwork and more time on patient care. But current methods of mining health data are costly, cumbersome and time consuming."

Google Is Training Machines to Predict When a Patient Will Die -- Bloomberg