INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightDeepMindImage caption
The Streams app is saving nurses hours each day, the Royal Free Hospital says
A controversial health app developed by artificial intelligence firm DeepMind will be taken over by Google, it has been
revealed.Streams was first used to send alerts in a London hospital but hit headlines for gathering data on 1.6 million patients without
informing them.DeepMind now wants the app to become an AI assistant for nurses and doctors around the world.One expert described the move as
"trust demolition".The news that Streams would be joining Google was announced in a DeepMind blogpost."Our vision is for Streams to now
become an AI-powered assistant for nurses and doctors everywhere - combining the best algorithms with intuitive design, all backed up by
"The team working within Google, alongside brilliant colleagues from across the organisation, will help make this vision a reality."It is
not only Streams that will be affected
The DeepMind Health division, which now has a partnership with 10 NHS hospitals to process medical data, will also fall under the remit of
California-based Google Health.Lawyer and privacy expert Julia Powles, who has closely followed the development of Streams, responded on
Twitter: "DeepMind repeatedly, unconditionally promised to 'never connect people's intimate, identifiable health data to Google'."Now it's
This isn't transparency, it's trust demolition," she added.In response, DeepMind told the TheIndianSubcontinent: "Patient data remains under
our NHS partners' strict control, and all decisions about its use will continue to lie with them
The move to Google does not affect this."Streams began as a collaboration with the Royal Free Hospital in London to assist in the management
Doctors approached Google-owned DeepMind for help in developing software to help spot and alert clinicians about patients at risk.Initially
it did not use artificial intelligence, but still drew praise from the doctors and nurses using it because of the time it saved them in
diagnosing and treating patients.However, it emerged that neither the health trust nor DeepMind had informed patients about the vast amount
of data it had been using.DeepMind Health went on to work with Moorfields Eye Hospital, with machine-learning algorithms scouring images of
eyes for signs of conditions such as macular degeneration.In July 2017, the UK's Information Commissioner ruled the UK hospital trust
involved in the initial Streams trial had broken UK privacy law for failing to tell patients about the way their data was being used.It told
the TheIndianSubcontinent that it expected that all the measures set out in its audit to "remain in place" after DeepMind Health moves to
Google.An independent review panel set up to scrutinise DeepMind's relationship with the NHS was "unlikely" to continue in its current form,
given the US takeover of the health division, DeepMind confirmed to the TheIndianSubcontinent.It is not the first time an independent firm
has been subsumed by Google
Nest, which collects data from home security cameras, thermostats and doorbells, was set up as a stand-alone, with promises that no data
would be shared with the search giant.But in February it was merged with Google to help build "a more thoughtful home"
