In deals struck across the U.S., hospital systems appear to be adopting starkly different protocols for sharing personal health information with Google, fueling broad concerns about the ability of patients to control the use of their data.
In a controversial collaboration with the hospital chain Ascension, Google gained access to millions of patient records, including names and birthdates, so it could use its artificial intelligence tools to analyze the information. The arrangement has triggered a fact-finding review by federal regulators.
Two months ago, Google struck a similar partnership with Mayo Clinic that differed in one key respect: Executives with both organizations emphasized to a STAT reporter that any data accessed by Google for analysis would be anonymized.
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