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Google and the Mayo Clinic announced Tuesday a 10-year strategic partnership that will make Google Cloud the "cornerstone" of the Mayo Clinic's digital transformation. The partnership will also combine Google's AI capabilities with the Mayo Clinic's clinical expertise to advance medical research and improve the delivery of health care.

"Health care is one of the most important fields that technology will help transform over the next decade, and it's a major area of investment for Google," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement. The new partnership, he said, presents "an extraordinary opportunity to develop services that will significantly improve lives."

Since Google Cloud Platform CEO Thomas Kurian made his debut as cloud chief earlier this year, GCP has taken an industry-focused sales approach, tailoring GCP's expertise to verticals such as health care, well as financial services, media, and transportation.

In a blog post, Google said it will help the Mayo Clinic build its digital strategy and develop a roadmap of cloud and AI-powered tools. The AI company will also work with the hospital and research center to create machine-learning models for serious and complex diseases.

To bring the teams closer together, Google is opening a new office near the Mayo Clinic's headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota.

"With Google Cloud's secure and compliant digital platform, we will be able to leverage innovative cloud technology, industry-leading AI and healthcare-specific solutions, so we can focus on revolutionizing healthcare delivery and taking care of our patients," Mayo Clinic CIO Christopher Ross said in a statement.

In its own blog post, the Mayo Clinic noted that while Google Cloud will secure and store the Clinic's data, the Clinic will control access and use of its patient data.

"Mayo Clinic will specifically authorize the use of data in projects to create new health care insights and solutions in conjunction with partners, including Google," the blog post said. "Mayo Clinic will manage access to all data using rigorous long-standing institutional controls."

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