Google DeepMind and healthcare in an age of algorithms

A key trend in contemporary healthcare is the emergence of an ambitious new cadre of corporate entrants: digital technology companies. Google, Microsoft, IBM, Apple and others are all preparing, in their own ways, bids on the future of health and on various aspects of the global healthcare industry. This article focuses on the Google conglomerate, Alphabet Inc. (referred to as Google for convenience). We examine the first healthcare deals of its British-based artificial intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind Technologies Limited,1 in the period between July 2015 and October 2016.2 In particular, the article assesses the first year of a deal between Google DeepMind and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which involved the transfer of identifiable patient records across the entire Trust, without explicit consent, for the purpose of developing a clinical alert app for kidney injury.