Google Has Now Access to Medical Data of 1.6 Million Patients

The American search engine developer is being data by Royal Free NHS to help the cause of those people who are at risk of kidney problems.

A Google owned organization has been provided access to the medical data of 1.6 million patients from three hospitals managed by the Royal Free National Health Services trust, which runs a number of hospitals. These include Royal Free, Chase Farm and Barnet hospitals.

Google’s british company Deep Mind, which is quite popular for using artificial intelligence in an innovative manner, is being offered patient details regarding people who are HIV-positive and details of abortions, overdoses and mental health history from previous five years and till next year, revealed a report issued by the New Scientist.

Patient data regarding the past five years is also being provided to DeepMind. In February, Google’s British organization announced that it was pioneering a software by collaborating with NHS hospitals to alert employees to patients who are at risk of death and deterioration through kidney failure. The smartphone application operated technology has been supported by Ex-health minister and surgeon Lord Darzi, who is the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s Director at Imperial College London

The Royal Free’s spokesperson stated patients won’t be aware that access to data was being provided but its encryption was done and an arrangement like that was a standard practice. Google Deep Mind’s senior scientist Dominic King spoke to BBC that reach to relevant and timely data was important for nurses as well as doctors.

The critics have raised questions regarding why it requires full details regarding patients. These include full names and patient histories. As per reports by Telegraph, the offered details will be used to develop such a specific app. The search engine operator stated it was in need of general datasets to identify patients who may be at risk of suffering acute kidney failure.

It aims to use the data to create an application, which will alert doctors when anyone is likely to suffer from kidney injuries- which account for one-fifth of  emergency hospital admissions, revealed NHS. DeepMind stated provided the potentially extensive patient range that suffer from AKI, contracting the data field won’t be easy.

In 2015, a huge leak of the identities of HIV patients fuelled fears regarding plans to enter records of NHS in a central database. A sexual healthcare clinic circulated the email addresses as well as a name of 780 suffers of HIV. Recent times, the Alphabet’s organization has faced criticism for perceived violations of privacy because of the amount of information which it stores regarding individuals.

Two years ago, 38 states of the US filed a litigation against the tech company when it faced the allegation that the vehicles with which the organization takes Google Street View photos has been also gathering data from computers found inside the houses they moved past.