Google will receive five years鈥� worth of NHS patients鈥� sensitive records under the terms of a deal signed last month, despite controversy over similar contracts in the past.
The extent to which patient data has been shared between an NHS trust in England and AI company DeepMind was first revealed by 快猫短视频 in 2016 and later ruled that it failed to comply with the law by the data watchdog for failures over informing patients.
However other NHS trusts went on to sign agreements with DeepMind. Last month, five of them chose to transfer their contracts over to Google Health after it absorbed part of DeepMind, which is owned by the same parent company 鈥� Alphabet 鈥� as Google.聽One NHS trust decided against it.
Advertisement
Although Google says there is no material difference in the content of the deals, under the agreements with DeepMind Health, the company chose to publish contracts with the NHS 鈥� something that is no longer the case with Google.
However, a contract released in response to a freedom of information request by 快猫短视频 shows that Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust 鈥� which runs Somerset鈥檚 biggest hospital, Musgrove Park Hospital 鈥� will grant Google five years鈥� worth of anonymised historical data on patients. In a previous arrangement between DeepMind Health and the Royal Free NHS Trust, anonymised data included patients鈥� medical history, diagnoses, treatment dates and ethnic background.
Bulk sharing
鈥淭his deal shows just how little has changed for one of the most controversial NHS data projects of the last half decade,鈥� says Sam Smith at campaign group MedConfidential. He questions why the contract suggests the data will be copied in bulk, rather than accessed using an international standard used for sharing medical records, known as FHIR.
Google鈥檚 partnerships with the NHS include work using artificial intelligence to detect eye disease from scans with an accuracy matching that of human experts. The contract gives a sense of the scale of the company鈥檚 ambitions for using its Streams software to help detect conditions before patients deteriorate.
Taunton and Somerset isn鈥檛 using the Streams app, but it is described in the document as a: 鈥渕obile software application that can presently assess the real-time detection of AKI [Acute Kidney Injury] with patients and which is extensible generally to (i) patient safety alerts, and (ii) real time detection and decision support to support treatment and avert clinical deterioration across a range of diagnoses and organ systems鈥�.
The contract also shows that Google is building an app for instant messaging and to-do lists for doctors and hospitals, called Streams Task Management. The financial terms of the deal are redacted. Google says this is because the commercial terms are confidential.
Digital priorities
The contract also suggests that Google will help Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust with the technology to allow other companies to build smartphone apps using health data. 鈥淕HUK [Google Health UK] will provide the Trust with a 鈥楩HIR API鈥� which will allow the Trust to enable mobile applications (initially based upon IOS [the operating system for iPhones]) developed by third parties to be able to access the relevant data,鈥� the agreement says.
Google says no patient information is yet being shared with it from the NHS trust. A company spokesperson says: 鈥淭aunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust are not actively using Streams and Google Health is not currently processing patient data from this Trust. Taunton and Somerset have an agreement with Google Health in order to explore future collaborations on ways that mobile tools could support the Trust鈥檚 digital priorities in the future.鈥�
David Shannon at the Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust says Musgrove Park hospital entered a five-year contract with Deepmind in 2017. 鈥淎n app was piloted in 2018 but to date not progressed. As such, DeepMind holds no patient data from Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust,鈥� he says.
