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It was the fall of 2015 when researchers from Google and the University of California, San Francisco, first sat down together to hash out a research collaboration in an area that has since exploded with activity: using artificial intelligence to make predictions in the hospital. Those initial discussions resulted in a contract, signed by both parties a few months later, mapping out an agreement under which UCSF would freely share deidentified patient data with Google — and stipulating what the tech giant would be allowed to do with the information, which covered at least 1.4 million patients. The goal was to see whether Google’s algorithms could predict whether patients had died in the hospital or whether they’d been quickly readmitted after discharge. (Robbins, 2/26)

It’s been two years since tech behemoth Amazon launched its joint venture in health care with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. Called Haven, the initiative is aimed at cutting costs and improving quality with an immediate focus on serving the employees of the three companies. The secretive venture has so far generated lots of buzz but said little about how it will accomplish those goals. (Brodwin, 2/26)