When James Manyika cited Nexus at Google Cloud Summit Johannesburg, he recognised a working South African medical AI product, and the connected ecosystem around it. Our current research with Google teams is looking at how MedGemma may extend clinical assistance around that certified core.
A moment of recognition in Johannesburg
At the inaugural Google Cloud Summit in Africa on 1 July 2026, James Manyika, Google’s Senior Vice President for Research, Labs, Technology and Society, cited Nexus as an example of Google’s chest X-ray research being applied to tuberculosis screening. We heard that acknowledgement as recognition of an entire delivery chain: Google’s model, Nexus’s regulated medical device, and the clinical teams putting it to work.
James Manyika later included Nexus in a September 2026 Google article, Building AI to accelerate science and improve lives. Google’s published figure was more than 25 000 Nexus-processed X-rays across 40 locations in six countries. These are tangible deployments, not a laboratory-only proof of concept.
What is operating today
Nexus AI CXR is CE MDR Class IIb certified for chest X-ray decision support. It uses Google’s CXR models, further developed under a long-term Master Licence and Development Agreement. Healthcare Framework (HCF) manages registration, assessment, case management and follow-up, while CloudX routes images and reports between AI, radiologists and the clinical record. Each product is useful alone, and together they support the path from screening to action.
MedGemma Integration
We are working with Google Research teams on MedGemma integration within the Nexus environment. The research direction is to help qualified professionals work with authorised clinical context and imaging results: for example, preparing concise summaries, supporting prioritisation and making structured information easier to review. Any such function needs task-specific validation, human oversight, privacy controls and the applicable regulatory review before clinical release.
MedGemma work is in development and currently in Beta, and is separate from the certified Nexus AI CXR device.
Further reading
- Google: Building AI to accelerate science and improve lives, by James Manyika (September 2026)
- Google Cloud Press Corner: Google Cloud Summit in Africa (1 July 2026)
- Google Research: MedGemma, our most capable open models for health AI development
- Google: Meet the Pretoria team using AI to spot lung disease in as little as 45 seconds (June 2026)
#GoogleCloudSummit #MedGemma #NexusAI #HCF #CloudX #ClinicalAI #TB
