Google DeepMind, NHS Partnership Sparks Privacy Fears

The artificial intelligence branch of Google and the Royal Free NHS agreed to a five-year deal that will allow Google DeepMind's algorithms to monitor the health data of 1.6 million patients. Google DeepMind and the National Health Service will partner in a move that alerts providers about abnormalities in patients’ vital signs and blood results—and privacy advocates have already started to cry foul.

The artificial intelligence branch of Google and the Royal Free NHS agreed to a five-year deal that will allow Google’s algorithms to monitor the health data of 1.6 million patients, the Financial Times reports. The deal’s proponents argue that thousands of deaths per year could be prevented from conditions such as acute kidney damage, the article notes, but critics say such promises are "unproven."

Paper health records, pagers and fax machines—which comprise the status quo in many NHS hospitals—create operational delays that mean sudden changes in a patient's vital signs aren't relayed to clinicians quickly enough to prevent worsening of the illness, Mustafa Suleyman, the U.K.-based DeepMind Health cofounder, writes in a blog post. The notifications help nurses and doctors take preventive action in real time, “like giving intravenous antibiotics when your kidneys are dehydrated, to prevent escalation to the ICU,” said Suleyman...