Google DeepMind and Royal Free in five-year deal

Google DeepMind has extended its controversial partnership with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, signing a new five-year deal. The London trust will work with the British machine learning company, which was acquired by Google in 2014, on further developing the Streams clinical app, which has so far used algorithms to detect acute kidney injury. In a statement, Royal Free said that app will be used as a diagnostic support tool for a far wider range of illness, alerting doctors earlier of patients at risk of getting ill. "Like breaking news alerts on a mobile phone, the technology will notify nurses and doctors immediately when test results show a patient is at risk of becoming seriously ill, and provide all the information they need to take action. "Streams will be extended beyond AKI to help care for patients with other serious conditions including sepsis and organ failure." The expanded Streams will alert doctors to patient in need "within seconds", rather than hours, it added. It should also free up doctors from paperwork, creating more than half a million hours of extra direct care, the trust claimed. Royal Free medical director Stephen Powis said: "This is about bringing information to doctors and nurses, much in the way we get news alerts on our phones.