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Release of Patient Data Makes Minds-Google

on Friday, 20 May 2016.

The data of over 1.6 million NHS patients from the Royal Free, Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals in London has been released to Google.

The data includes full names as well as patient histories.

Google claims that the data will be used by its artificial intelligence division, DeepMind, to develop an app called 'Streams' which will provide doctors with an early warning system highlighting patients at risk of developing acute kidney injury (AKI).

Google warns that AKI currently contributes to 40,000 deaths a year in the UK and accounts for up to 20% of emergency hospital admissions. Google hopes the app will reduce these statistics.

The Trust has reassured patients that the data is encrypted and therefore Google should be unable to identify individuals. The release of data is regulated by the terms of the NHS' standard information sharing agreement, which it claims is in use with many other third party organisations without issue.

Patients should contact the Trust's data protection officer if they wish to opt out of any data sharing system.


For more information, please contact a member of our Pharmaceutical Law and Life Sciences team, or complete the form below.

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