DeepMind Health inks new deal with UK's NHS to deploy Streams app in early 2017

DeepMind Health, the division of the Google-owned AI company that's focused on building links to healthcare providers to drive the application of machine learning algorithms for preventative medicine, has inked a fresh data-sharing agreement with the NHS Royal Free Hospital Trust in London. It's the second agreement signed between the pair -- and it supersedes their original agreement inked last year, which ran into controversy after a freedom of information request by New Scientist revealed the volume of patient identifiable medical data (PID) flowing from the Royal Free to DeepMind, and raised questions about whether NHS information governance principles were being correctly followed. The data in question was being used to power an app called Streams, built by DeepMind but using an NHS algorithm to generate alerts on patients at risk of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). At the time the collaboration was made public, last February, no details were provided about how much PID was being shared between DeepMind and the NHS -- leading to huge consternation when the scope of the arrangement emerged. The U.K.'s data watchdog, the ICO, began investigating complaints about the data-sharing agreement. The Streams app also ran into trouble when it was revealed DeepMind and the Royal Free had not registered it as a medical device with the oversight body, the MHRA, despite piloting the app in the Royal Free's hospitals.