Google’s patient information project ‘Nightingale’ is under scrutiny
Not long after The Wall Street Journal blew the lid off Project Nightingale, regulators have declared that they’ll begin investigating Google’s partnership with Ascension, the second-biggest health system in the USAs indicated by WSJ, the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of HealthHuman Services “will seek to learn more information about this mass collection of individuals’ medical records to ensure that HIPAA protections were fully implemented.”
The Office for Civil Rights’ website says it “enforces federal civil rights laws, consciencereligious freedom laws, the Health Insurance PortabilityAccountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy, Security,Breach Notification Rules,the Patient Safety ActRule, which together protect your fundamental rights of nondiscrimination, conscience, religious freedom,health information privacy.”
Project Nightingale gives Google access to countless patients’ names, health histories, date of birth, lab results, conclusdiagnoses ionshospitalization records from AscensionThe health system allegedly didn’t tell doctorspatients that it’s sharing information to the tech giant, which is utilizing the data to design new AI-powered softwareWSJ says Google imagines an AI that would be able to automatically anticipate the resultdangers of specific methodsmedicationsThe software would have the option to read scanned pictures like MRIstransfer related information to a central network that can be gotten to by both AscensionGoogle personnel
Pundits are stressed over patient privacy, particularly since a monstrous collection of health-related information is includedRepresentative Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) believes the project ought to have greater government oversighteven called for new legislation to address the issueA Google representative told WSJ, however, that the organization is “happy to coordinate” with the probeit believes its “work with Ascension adheres to industry-wide regulations (including HIPAA) regarding patient datacomes with strict guidelines on data privacy, security,usage.” That echoes Google’s blog post about the partnership, where it guaranteed individuals that it adheres to HIPAA.
