Five NHS trusts sign first partnership with Google

By Ramla Soni

16:14, 9 October 2019

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Five National Health Service (NHS) trusts have signed partnerships with Google (GOOGL) to process sensitive patient records, according to the Financial Times.

The deals which are believed to be the first of it's kind come after DeepMind, a London-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, transferred control of its health division to its Californian parent.

DeepMind had contracts to collect medical data from six NHS trusts in the UK to develop its Streams app, which alerts doctors and nurses when patients are at risk of acute kidney injury, and to conduct AI research.

The announcement came two years after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ruled that the Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s transfer of 1.6 million identifiable NHS patient records to DeepMind to develop Streams was unlawful.

Patients were not told what was being done with their data. Five of the trusts that had contracts with DeepMind — including the Royal Free and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust — chose to sign new deals with Google, while Yeovil District Hospital NHS trust declined to do so.

Taunton and Somerset NHS trust has also signed a contract with Google, but said it would not use the Streams app, the Financial Times stated.

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