Google DeepMind patient app legality questioned
In her letter to Prof Stephen Powis, medical director of the Royal Free Hospital in London, Dame Fiona said: “We keenly appreciate the great benefits
that new technologies such as Streams can offer to patients, in terms of better, safer, more timely care.”
In the case of the partnership with DeepMind, data was collected from patients at the Royal Free Hospital Trust in London in order to test an app to help doctors
and nurses identify those who might be at risk of acute kidney disease.
In response to the leaked letter, a Royal Free London representative said: “The Streams app was built in close collaboration
with clinicians to help prevent unnecessary deaths by alerting them to patients in need in a matter of seconds.
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The head of the Department of Health’s National Data Guardian (NDG) has criticised
the NHS for the deal it struck with Google’s DeepMind over sharing patient data.
“The data used to provide the app has always been strictly controlled by the Royal Free
and has never been used for commercial purposes or combined with Google products, services or ads – and never will be
She questioned the use of “implied consent” as the legal basis for the transfer of identifiable patient records,
because the data was initially used just to test the app.