DeepMind-Royal Free deal is "cautionary tale" for healthcare in the algorithmic age

Researchers studying a deal in which Google's artificial intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind, acquired access to millions of sensitive NHS patient records have warned that more must be done to regulate data transfers from public bodies to private firms. The academic study says that "inexcusable" mistakes were made when, in 2015, the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust in London signed an agreement with Google DeepMind. This allowed the British AI firm to analyse sensitive information about 1.6 million patients who use the Trust's hospitals each year. The access was used for monitoring software for mobile devices, called Streams, which promises to improve clinicians' ability to support patients with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). But according to the study's authors, the purposes stated in the agreement were far less specific, and made more open-ended references to using data to improve services.