Google's DeepMind tried to justify why it has access to millions of NHS patient records
The AI research lab, acquired by Google in 2014 for around £400 million, signed a data-sharing agreement with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust on 29 September 2015.
The agreement gives Google DeepMind access to the names, addresses, and medical conditions of the 1.6 million patients that are treated at Barnet, Chase Farm, and the Royal Free hospitals each year, as well as complete data on all patients treated by the Trust in the past five years.
This week, New Scientist questioned why Google DeepMind needs access to so much data on so many people, including those who have never experienced kidney problems, for the app, which is called Streams.
Streams - used by Royal Free clinicians in three separate trials since December 2015 - is designed to detect acute kidney injury (AKI), a condition that kills more than 1,000 people a month. It uses an algorithm developed by the NHS.
A Google DeepMind spokeswoman provided Business Insider with the following statement:
Citing data protection lawyers and privacy campaigners, New Scientist also raised concerns about whether Google DeepMind gained approval from the necessary regulators, including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), before introducing the app to NHS hospitals.
Trials of the app are not currently taking place across the three hospitals operated by the Royal Free Trust.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO,) the UK data regulator, has said it is looking into the data-sharing between Google DeepMind and Royal Free after receiving a small number of complaints from individuals.
A spokesman at Royal Free provided Business Insider with the following statement:
A board of healthcare experts and government tech leaders were due to scrutinise Google DeepMind's work with the NHS. This is something that Google DeepMind first announced when it revealed it had started working with the NHS back in February this year. DeepMind has not yet announced whether the meeting has taken place.