Google DeepMind deal to use NHS patient files is illegal
A British hospital trust misused patient data when it shared information with Google for work on a smartphone app, a British data protection watchdog said on Monday.
The Royal Free NHS Trust did not comply with the Data Protection Act when it passed on personal information of around 1.6 million patients to Google's DeepMind.
DeepMind, which is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is the company's artificial intelligence and machine learning branch.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it found 'a number of shortcomings' in the way the data was handled, including that patients were not adequately informed their data would be used as part of the test.
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A British hospital trust misused patient data when it shared information with Google's DeepMind for work on a smartphone app, a British data protection watchdog has found. DeepMind is the company's artificial intelligence and machine learning branch
'There's no doubt the huge potential that creative use of data could have on patient care and clinical improvements, but the price of innovation does not need to be the erosion of fundamental privacy rights,' Elizabeth Denham, head of the ICO, said in a statement. Â
The data was provided in a medical trial that integrated information from existing systems used by the Royal Free.
The systems alerted clinicia ns when signs of deterioration in a patient with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) were found.
The investigation found that many patients did not know their data was being used as part of a test.
'We accept the ICO's findings and have already made good progress to address the areas where they have concerns,' the trust said in a statement.
The trust has now signed a document agreeing to make changes to the way it handles data.
Although the ICO's findings related to the hospital, Google's artificial intelligence arm has also taken responsibility.
The company admitted it underestimated the complexity of Britain's state-run National Health Service and the rules around patient data.
'We were almost exclusively focused on building tools that nurses and doctors wanted, and thought of our work as technol ogy for clinicians rather than something that needed to be accountable to and shaped by patients, the public and the NHS as a whole,' Google DeepMind said in a statement.
'We got that wrong, and we need to do better.'
The systems used technology to track patients' symptoms and alerted clinicians when signs of deterioration in a patient with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) were found.
The Royal Free NHS Trust did not comply with the Data Protection Act when it passed on personal information of around 1.6 million patients to Google's DeepMind. Pictured is the Royal Free Hospital in London, one of several hospitals the Royal Free Trust is responsible for
AKI affects up to 18 per cent of those admitted to hospital. Â
As part of the deal between the Trust and Google, DeepMind gained access to sensitive patient information such as HIV status, mental health history and abortions.
Ms Aisling Burnand, Chief Executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), said: 'We hope this decision paves the way for more clarity around the use of patient data.
'We know how vital patient data can be to medical research but also how important the safeguarding of it is.
'Although a blog from the Information Commissioner offers some advice on this thorny issue, we believe clear, firm guidelines are still needed.'
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