Google is using the information in gathers through its partnershipwith Ascension to develop artificial intelligence software that ithopes to sell to to health care providers. (Photo:Shutterstock)
Google is aggressively collecting and analyzing health care dataon millions of patients in 21 states across the U.S.
|The effort represents what the Wall Street Journal terms the "biggest effortyet by a Silicon Valley giant to gain a toehold in the health-careindustry through the handling of patients' medical data."
|"Project Nightingale" was first launched last year, incollaboration with Ascension, the Catholic nonprofit that operatesover 2,500 hospitals around the country, which has agreed toshare its' patient data with Google.
|Related: Google brings in health care bigwig to unite itsvarious health initiatives
|The effort has targeted complete patient medical records,including names, lab results, hospital visits andprescriptions.
|Google is using the information to develop artificialintelligence software that it hopes to sell to to health careproviders. The software is supposed to analyze patient medicalhistories and recommend (or recommend against) treatments.
|Right now, however, Ascension is not getting charged forGoogle's work.
|Legal experts tell the Wall Street Journal that the projectappears to not run afoul of HIPAA.
|However, like many other tech giants, Google does not enjoy ahigh level of public trust when it comes to privacy. Just twomonths ago the company paid a $170 million fine over illegal datacollection via YouTube.
|Lawmakers aren't necessarily buying the assurances either.
|"That a health care provider could be furnishing sensitivehealth data, directly tied to patient names and dates of birth andwithout the knowledge or consent of doctors or patients, to Googleshould be deeply unsettling," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., toldThe Hill.
|Project Nightingale is hardly the company's only experiment withhealth data. Google also struck a deal with the Mayo Clinic tostore its health data over the next ten years. Earlier this month,it announced it had acquired Fitbit, prompting concerns fromprivacy advocates about how Google would use the personal datacollected from Fitbit wearable devices, which track a variety ofhealth metrics.
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