AI has no place in the NHS if patient privacy isn't assured

Tech companies are asking to step into doctors' offices with us, and eavesdrop on all the symptoms and concerns we share with our GPs. While doctors and other medical staff are bound by confidentiality and ethics, we haven't yet figured out what it means when a digital third party -- the apps and algorithms -- are allowed in the room, too. Healthcare isn't the place to mimic Facebook's former motto to "move fast and break things", or push regulations to see where they bend, a la Uber. Instead, patients need to trust who's in the consultation room with them, says Nathan Lea, senior research associate at UCL's Institute of Health Informatics and the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research. "You want the individual to be able to share with the doctor or clinical team as much detail as necessary without the anxiety that someone else will be looking at it," he says.