Seattle Children’s Hospital in the US has partnered with Google Cloud to create an AI-powered agent, Pathway Assistant, aimed at streamlining healthcare providers’ access to intricate medical information and the newest evidence-based practices.
This collaboration addresses critical challenges within the US healthcare system, such as provider shortages and the need for rapid access to current medical research.
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Seattle Children’s has developed a Clinical Effectiveness programme featuring clinical standard work (CSW) pathways for more than 70 diagnoses.
Since 2010, these pathways are used by nearly 40 children’s hospitals across the US.
The new AI agent integrates these CSWs, making them readily accessible to healthcare providers.
Pathway Assistant is built on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform using Gemini models.
It is designed to quickly synthesise information from CSWs, which encompass images, and recent medical literature, to aid healthcare providers in making informed decisions.
This tool reduces the time taken to access information, from up to 15 minutes manually to seconds.
Seattle Children’s vice-president and chief medical information officer Clara Lin said: “This AI agent represents a significant step forward in achieving that goal, enabling our team to leverage the full potential of CSWs and deliver the highest quality care to the patients we serve.”
Developed with input from more than 50 healthcare providers at Seattle Children’s, Pathway Assistant has shown “potential” in initial pilots to not only improve patient outcomes but also reduce provider workloads.
This allows providers to dedicate more time and focus to patient care.
Additionally, it is anticipated to promote adherence to standard care processes.
The effectiveness of Pathway Assistant will be evaluated using a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures specifically developed to assess both physician and patient outcomes.
Google Cloud ensures that customers maintain control over their data, with infrastructure and secure data storage that support HIPAA compliance, as well as adherence to each customer’s security and privacy controls.
In February 2025, Seattle Children’s entered a ten-year partnership with software company Rackspace Technology to enhance its data centre operations.
