Google partnered with Ascension, the 2nd-largest US health-care system, to analyze personal health info of millions, sources say as part of Project Nightingale
The Ascension deal lands five months after a [[a:943191|lawsuit accused the University of Chicago's medical center of sharing hundreds of thousands of identifiable patient records with Google]] — so this is the second time in 2019 that Google's appetite for hospital data has surfaced through a health system partner rather than any public announcement. The Wall Street Journal report says the arrangement covers personal health information of millions at the second-largest US health-care system, under the internal name Project Nightingale.
What makes the story more than a one-off leak is where it sits in Google's arc: within three months the company had [[a:950557|unified its scattered health projects under Google Health, a 500-plus-person unit led by former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg]], and by mid-2021 it signed a similar algorithm-development deal with HCA Healthcare. Nightingale is the template those later moves follow.
First-order effects
Ascension hands Google access to patient records from millions of people for analytics, while patients and clinicians at the second-largest US health system learn about the scale of the data sharing from press reports rather than from Ascension itself.
Second-order effects
Every other large hospital chain weighing a Google data partnership now faces the scrutiny question first — the UChicago lawsuit and the Nightingale reporting make 'share records with Google' a legal and reputational decision, not just an IT one.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds — Nightingale, then the Google Health consolidation, then the HCA algorithms deal — US hospital data becomes the training substrate for Google's clinical tools, with health systems competing to be platform partners rather than data owners.
The trend: Google is assembling a national-scale clinical-data position by signing hospital systems one at a time, converting health records into the raw material for its healthcare algorithms.
Google just updated its blog with an FAQ. Explains they did sign a BAA. Says a few employees in controlled conditions had access to PHI. Not clear if patient consent would have been a requirement, but still, they could have made that step regardless... https://cloud.google.com/..…
@halhod
Hal on x
I dunno which comms genius decided to push the line that the Google/Ascension deal isn't a secret cos it was mentioned on the Q2 earnings call. the point is that patients weren't informed, not Google's investors!
@joemag_games
Joemag on x
You see Mr. Bond, with these records I'll be able to trace my “new plague” and only my shell-corporation can provide the cure! *reveals elaborate map of the world, lights blink red* I give you... Project Nightingale! https://twitter.com/...
@wsj
@wsj on x
Google's effort to store millions of patients' health records includes an interface much like its flagship search engine. A name search could reveal everything from patients' medications to their body temperatures. https://www.wsj.com/...
@jason_kint
Jason Kint on x
As I said from a stage earlier today, Facebook has been in a “feeding frenzy” for the past eighteen months. And the last six months we've started to see similar signals about Google that we saw with Facebook in 2016/2017 ... before all hell broke loose in 2018. https://twitter.co…
@violetblue
Violet Blue on x
Whoa. Google whistleblower made a video of a doc dump ... (and no, it's not on YouTube lol) If the company violated HIPAA, it'll be a legal bloodbath. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@fdmts
Chris Dwan on x
My guess on each cloud's practical attitude towards my data: Microsoft: Risk averse. Play the long game. Amazon: You clicked on the EULA. Read the fine print. Google: These laws are dumb! Disrupt for the greater good! Ask forgiveness not permission! https://cloud.google.com/...
@dermhag
Howard Green on x
If a Doctor leaves an EHR screen on in the hallway he or she is fined a million $bucks. If Google buys the patient Médical records from a large hospital Inc they ring the bell on Wall St. https://www-theverge-com.cdn.ampproject .org/ ...
@chrissyfarr
Christina Farr on x
Google: “It's understandable that people want to ask questions about our work with Ascension.” https://cloud.google.com/...