Project Nightingale – Everything You Need to Know
This month we learned that Google engaged with one of the United States’ largest healthcare systems, Ascension, on a collaborative project named “Project Nightingale,” where Google receives the health information of millions of patients spanning across 21 states. This project appears to be the first concerted effort from a tech giant trying to gain momentum within the healthcare industry.
In today’s blog we are going to examine what exactly the project entails, what type of data is being shared, and most importantly, if it creates any privacy violations.
As mentioned earlier, giants in their own respective industries, Google and Ascension, have a partnership that in its simplest form is a data sharing project. The key issue with this partnership is that the patients whose information was being shared had zero knowledge and no consent was given by either the patients and/or the doctors. Over the past few years Google has made moves that would indicate they are interested in putting their foot in the healthcare space. For example, Google has recently announced that they have plans to acquire Fitbit. Ascension is the United States’ second largest healthcare system, with 2,600 hospitals and medical facilities spanning over 24 states.
What information is being shared?
A lot. Essentially Google has access to each patient’s complete electronic health record (EHR). Items include:
· Names
· Dates of Birth
· Doctor Diagnoses
· Lab Results
· Hospitalization Records
· Addresses
· Family Members
· Allergies
· Immunizations
· Radiology Scans
· Medications
· And Medical conditions
A typical patient would check into a clinic or hospital. The patient’s doctor or nurse would enter exam results/notes into their EHR system, and then the data is instantly shared or streamed over to Google’s Project Nightingale.
Are there privacy concerns with this partnership?
This is really where the rubber meets the road. The issue isn’t necessarily that the information is being shared through the Nightingale partnership, but more so whether it is breaking any HIPPA compliance laws. According to statements released by both Google and Ascension it does appear to be compliant.
CNBC reported that while Ascension and Google did sign a business associate agreement, as required by HIPAA, “some Ascension employees were concerned that some tools that Google is using to import and export data were not compliant with HIPAA privacy standards.”
Some are skeptical, mostly due to the level of secrecy this project has been under, while some believe there is no concern. More recently, the United States Department of Health and Human Services has launched an inquiry into this partnership in order to learn more about what exactly is happening with the large collection of patient medical records and how it relates to data privacy laws. In the best-case scenario, all the patient health information being shared will be used to help improve the healthcare industry overall, but only time will tell.
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Sources used: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/project-nightingale-seems-square-hipaa-next-steps-matter
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/information-technology/google-ascension-data-partnership-sparks-federal-probe
