One of the largest companies in the world has been making moves in the healthcare market. News broke on Monday that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has a deal with American’s second-largest hospital system in order to store, analyze, and data mine millions of patient’s medical information with AI in order to improve medical services.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the new joint initiative between Ascension – a chain of over 2,600 hospitals, offices, and other medical facilities – and Google had been officially announced between the two companies, although data sharing agreements were in place much earlier. This initiative, Project Nightingale, began in secret back in 2018 as the tech giant drew upon doctor diagnoses, lab results, hospitalization records, and other medical information in an effort to data-mine this info. The hope would be that Google’s AI algorithms would be able to spot areas for improvement, whether that be actual treatment plans or just administrative changes in the medical system.
While some anonymous employees from Ascension voiced concerns to The Journal regarding how this data was being collected and whether it was ethical to do so, privacy experts have said that it seems legal under federal law. Specifically, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 lets hospitals share confidential data with business partners without telling the patients themselves as long as it remained on the topic of providing healthcare services to said patients.
Google isn’t the only tech giant that’s venturing into the healthcare space. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon have all been making their own moves into the healthcare market. Apple has moved into the realm of virtual medical research through its iPhone’s and Apple Watch. Microsoft has started using cloud-based tools to share medical data among different healthcare institutions, while Amazon ended up coming together in a joint venture with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to help reduce medical costs for employers in the U.S.
At the same time, however, many social media and tech giants have drawn criticism for failing to do enough to protect the privacy of its users. Back in September, Google’s YouTube division agreement to pay $170 million in fines due to complaints that it had illegally collected info regarding children and which ads to best target them with. It is issues such as these that have made many skeptical about giving these tech companies access to sensitive medical data.
Shares of Google didn’t respond much to the news, inching down around 0.8% over the course of Monday. So far in 2019, shares of Google are up 19.5%, mildly underperforming the broader NASDAQ index’s 27% gain over the same time period.
Google Company Profile
Alphabet is a holding company, with Google, the Internet media giant, as a wholly owned subsidiary. Google generates 99% of Alphabet revenue, of which more than 85% is from online ads. Google’s other revenue is from sales of apps and content on Google Play and YouTube, as well as cloud service fees and other licensing revenue. Sales of hardware such as Chromebooks, the Pixel smartphone, and smart homes products, which include Nest and Google Home, also contribute to other revenue. – Warrior Trading News
