Google eye AI reaches one million patients in three countries

A Google diabetic retinopathy screening model has been used on over a million patients across three health systems in India, Thailand and Australia, according to a Comment in Nature Medicine published on 23 September 2026.

The authors — Richa Tiwari, Rajroshan Sawhney and Kasumi Widner of Google, with Paisan Ruamviboonsuk of Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok and Angus Turner of the Lions Eye Institute in Western Australia — describe the deployment as one that "offers cross-cutting insights that may inform the expansion of healthcare artificial intelligence globally." The three anchor sites are the Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok, and Lions Outback Vision in Western Australia.

Only the abstract is public. Per-country accuracy figures, workflow-integration notes and any regulatory friction sit behind the journal's paywall.

The broader deployment history is on the record elsewhere. Google's October 2024 update put the model at "600,000+ screenings supported globally to date," with a stated target of "6 million AI-supported screenings over 10 years at no cost to patients" across India and Thailand, licensed via Forus Health, AuroLab and Perceptra.