When the world’s largest information broker turns its attention toward medical records, one can’t help but react with trepidation, at least until all the facts are on the table. Under the guise of “making the world a better place,” Google’s artificial intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind, has moved on from beating human players at Go to more meaningful matters: using big data and machine intelligence to solve some of the world’s largest health problems. Suffice it to say, Google’s entry into the healthcare industry divides public opinion.
On one end, doctors are eager to improve antiquated National Health Service (NHS) systems through sophisticated technology, while on the other, privacy groups, and patients raise concern over the non-consented sharing of their data.
The situation came to light back in May , when DeepMind acquired healthcare data of 1.6 million patients from three hospitals run by London’s Royal Free Trust to aid with the development of an app called Streams, that would enable doctors to identify patients at risk of developing acute kidney injury (AKI). Failing to realize that artificial neural networks require massive sample sizes to correctly function, controversy broke out when it became apparent that few people would benefit, though so much data is shared.
Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind co-founder, pursued the project to improve the way healthcare organization share and stores data. “Current systems are crying out for more innovation, and hopefully that is something we can pioneer,” he said, noting that it was the hospital who sought out DeepMind’s help, not the reverse. Dr. Chris Lang, the kidney doctor who first approached DeepMind, stated that the Google arrangement isn’t unusual in the healthcare industry; data sharing is legal for “ethically approved projects.”
As far as DeepMind is concerned, healthcare is a new avenue of exploration. Conversely, Alphabet itself has multiple established ventures in the space: There’s Calico, Alphabet’s research and development aimed at anti-aging, and Verily, a subsidiary focused on developing smart contact lenses that can help monitor glucose levels in diabetics.
DeepMind was wholly surprised by the volume of negative publicity stemming from the NHS affair, having to remind the press frequently that the scope of the project is to save lives. The company is setting up a panel of independent reviewers, and nine technical and clinical experts, who have the right to scrutinize the firm’s actions.
Altruistic as the intention may be, Google is ultimately in the business to make money. How it plans to benefit from healthcare work has not yet been determined. “Right now it is about building the tools and systems that are useful, and once users are engaged then we can figure out how to monetize them,” Suleyman said. “The vast majority of payments made to suppliers in healthcare systems are not often as connected to outcomes as we would like. Ultimately we want to get paid when we deliver concrete clinical benefits. We want to get paid to change the system and improve patient outcomes.”
Source: BBC
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