Google Assistant helping promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Abner Li | Oct 19 2022 - 6:00 am PT

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Google is using Assistant to help get the word out.

Assistant is used by 700 million people every month, and “How are you” and “What’s up?” are some of the most common queries. For the month of October, asking Google Assistant one of those questions returns: “It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I’m learning some new facts.”

You can tap the suggestion chip or say “Hey Google, tell me about Breast Cancer Awareness Month” in the US. Facts are sourced from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) “about the critical importance of early detection and mammography in improving prognoses and saving lives.” This information will be available year-round and you can read more by tapping “Source.”

Meanwhile, for the past several years, Google Health has been working on AI models that can analyze mammograms with promising results of “similar or better accuracy than clinicians.”

One clinical research study with Northwestern Medicine last year lets patients have “mammograms reviewed by an investigational AI model that flags scans for immediate review by a radiologist if they show a higher likelihood of breast cancer.”

If a radiologist determines that further imaging is required, the woman will have the option to undergo this imaging on the same day. This study will evaluate whether this prioritization could reduce the amount of time that women spend waiting for a diagnostic assessment.