THE DAILY EDITION · 23 OCTOBER 2026
Google says it is applying foundation models to tuberculosis screening
Why this story?
Google is tying its medical AI work to a live tuberculosis screening program in Indonesia, with open models and local deployment rather than a lab demo.
Google said on Oct. 23, 2026, that it is applying open foundation models to tuberculosis screening, as part of a broader effort to move its health AI work from research into clinic use and public health programs. The company said it is discussing the work at IDWeek 2026 in Washington, D.C.
In its account, Google described a progression from an earlier AI tool for identifying people with presumptive TB to prospective clinical trials, regulatory clearance with local partners and open models such as MedGemma. The company said those models are intended to help public health systems screen more people for TB, especially in places where radiologists and imaging infrastructure are limited.
Google also said partner groups are extending the work beyond the company itself. It said Nexus AI is expanding to new countries, Indonesia is integrating TB screening into its national program, and CIDRZ, the Aurum Institute and HELINA are building clinical evidence for cough-based triage.
The company said Indonesia’s health ministry is fine-tuning MedGemma and MedSigLIP on domestic chest radiographs for a national screening effort aimed at 50 million people a year. Google said the models run on local infrastructure so patient data stays inside national borders.