[ad_1]
The recent DeepMind incursion into the supply of software as a service to UK hospitals has come to an end.
Google The Artificial Intelligence Division has announced that it will withdraw from providing a clinical alert management application and task management for healthcare – handing the team responsible for the daily delivery of feeds to his parent, Google.
Announcing the move in a blog post titled "Scaling Streams with Google," DeepMind's co-founders write, "Our vision is that Streams now becomes an AI-based assistant for nurses and doctors around the world. – combining the best algorithms with an intuitive design, all supported by rigorous evidence.The team working within Google, along with brilliant colleagues from across the organization, will help realize that vision. "
The 2015 DeepMind dive into the health apps space has always seemed a curious departure for an AI specialist because, despite the quote above, the Streams app does not use any AI.
Instead, he uses an algorithm from the National Health Service. The design of the application has also been entrusted to a UK based application studio.
Yet, DeepMind has begun its foray into the health field with great ambitions regarding the application of AI to patient data, discreetly inkling a broad data sharing agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding with an NHS Trust for access the complete (and perfectly identifiable) medical records of millions of patients as we reported at the time.
He also introduced an ethics application in 2015 to the NHS Health Research Authority to apply AI to patient data. Although later, he was told, he quickly realized that the "most urgent problems" of clinicians were more fundamental than the urgent need to quickly embark on AI experiments. (And DeepMind has always maintained that the patient data obtained as part of its agreement with the Royal Free NHS Trust, with which the Streams application was co-developed, have never been used for the purpose. avian influenza.)
The Streams project was the subject of a major controversy in May 2016 when further details emerged on the scope and modalities of data sharing upon which the application is based. Questions have begun to be asked about the data governance process, the legal basis for sharing data, and the role and potential of Google. interest in people's medical records.
After one year, the initial data sharing agreement between DeepMind and Royal Free was removed and replaced by a stricter contract.
Then, last year, the data protection supervisory body of the United Kingdom declared that the first agreement violated UK law, with the Information Commissioner saying that patients "would not have reasonably expected that their confidential medical records would be used to develop an application.
Although the Streams application has already been deployed in Royal Free Hospitals. And DeepMind had signed some other contracts with NHS Trusts to use the application.
It also became apparent that DeepMind was providing flows to the trusts mostly for free for the first five years. And a group of external reviewers hired by DeepMind to build trust warned in its annual review earlier this year of the risk it[ing] excessive monopoly "due to a data access and streaming infrastructure provided with the Streams application.
The whole episode has opened up a box of data governance, privacy, and Pandora data trust issues – that DeepMind now seems to be going straight to Google, which will now be fully integrated into the framework as a provider of Web-based applications. health (and patient data manager) behind Streams.
"The Streams team will stay in London, under the direction of former NHS surgeon and researcher Dr. Dominic King," the DeepMind co-founders are now writing. "We are fully committed to all our NHS partners and to the realization of our current projects and more. We will work closely with them when planning the team transition. Governance and information security remain our top priorities. Patient data remains under the strict control of our partners and all decisions regarding their use will remain with them. "
They add that the role of DeepMind from now on will be more focused on research than on software as a service: "As a research organization, DeepMind will continue to work on basic health research with partners around the world. University, the NHS and beyond. When we achieve promising results that can have a large scale impact, we will work closely with Streams' translational and Google translational research teams on the implementation of research ideas in clinical settings. "
Thus, the supply of all health AIs that DeepMind will develop in the future will be left to Google and its deployment. (And in terms of scale, Google might feel encouraged by the fact that the new UK Health Minister is very supportive of the application.)
So is the task of gaining the trust of patients – which could be the biggest challenge here.
DeepMind's independent reviewers also highlighted the problem of trust when they wrote in their annual report: "As far as we can check, DMH [DeepMind Health] does not share his data with Google. Yet, it is difficult to remedy this eventuality, today or in the future, and to delay or undermine work that may be of great benefit to patients. "
It is unclear whether Google will use a group of independent reviewers to oversee its supply of Streams, as DeepMind did. We asked the company to confirm its intention with regard to surveillance.
[ad_2]
Source link
