Google Cloud has announced the general availability of its Healthcare API in an effort to help fight COVID-19.

As the pandemic continues to take a toll, cloud computing and big data are emerging as important factors in the fight to control it. Now, more than ever, the ability to share data is vital. The CMS and ONC released rules a few months ago to aid in that goal, based on the 21st Century Cures Act. As Google points out, however, the necessary tools still need to be created to capitalize on those rules and provide healthcare professionals what they need.

“To address this gap, we’ve made our Cloud Healthcare API generally available today to the industry at-large,” writes Joe Corkery, MD, Director of Product, Healthcare and Life Sciences, and Aashima Gupta, Director of Industry Solutions, Healthcare and Life Sciences. “The API allows healthcare organizations to ingest and manage key data from a range of inputs and systems—and then better understand that data through the application of analytics and machine learning in real time, at scale. It also enables providers to easily interact with that data using Web-friendly, REST-based endpoints and health plans to rapidly get up and running with a cloud based FHIR server providing the capabilities needed to implement, scale and support interoperability and patient access.”

Google’s announcement is good news for the medical community, and will hopefully aid in the creation of the tools professionals need to continue combatting COVID-19.