Project Nightingale is a data storage and processing project by Google Cloud and Ascension, a Catholic health care system comprising a chain of 2,600 hospitals, doctors' offices and other related facilities, in 21 states, with tens of millions of patient records available for processing

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

data. Ascension is one of the largest health-care systems in the United States with comprehensive and specific health care information of millions who are part of its system. The project is Google's attempt to gain a foothold into the healthcare industry on a large scale.

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

are also actively advancing into health care, but none of their business arrangements are equal in scope to Project Nightingale.

History

In early 2019, Ascension began talks with Google about developing health aggregation software to store and search medical records. The two companies signed a

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA or the Ted Kennedy, Kennedy–Nancy Kassebaum, Kassebaum Act) is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President ...

(HIPAA) business associate agreement, which would allow Ascension to transfer patient data to Google Cloud, and would bar Google from using this data for purposes other than providing services to Ascension. Google first mentioned its project with Ascension in a July 2019 earnings call, which said the partnership was meant to "improve the healthcare experience and outcomes." ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' first reported on "Project Nightingale" on November 11, 2019, writing that doctors and patients had not been notified of the project and that 150 Google employees had access to patient data. Google Health chief David Feinberg responded to the report in a blog post, saying all employees with access to protected health information went through medical ethics training and were approved by Ascension. The project raised privacy fears because of Google's involvement in other privacy controversies, like

DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Go ...

's medical data-sharing controversy and a lawsuit against Google and the

University of Chicago Medical Center The University of Chicago Medical Center, branded as UChicago Medicine, is a nationally ranked academic medical center located in Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park on the South Side, Chicago, South Side of Chicago. It is the flagship campus for The U ...

for allegedly processing identifying medical records. Google Cloud executive Tariq Shaukat wrote that patient data gathered from the project "cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data."

Types of data

The data sharing includes patient names and their dates of birth, along with doctor diagnoses, lab results, and hospitalization records, amounting to access to complete

electronic health records An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of electronically stored patient and population health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared thro ...

. Also included in the data sharing are addresses of the patient, family members,

allergies Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...

immunizations Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-sel ...

, radiology scans,

medications Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to medical diagnosis, diagnose, cure, treat, or preventive medicine, prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmaco ...

, and

medical conditions A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...

. After the patient checks in to the doctor's office, or hospital, or senior center - the doctor and nurse examination results are entered into a computer and uploaded to Google's cloud servers. At this point, the system is then used to suggest treatment plans, recommend replacement or removal of a doctor from the patient's health-care team, and administer policies on narcotics. Ascension, the company sharing data with Google, may also vary their billing according to treatment or procedures.

Investigations

Soon after ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported on Project Nightingale, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' published an account from an anonymous whistleblower who worked on Project Nightingale. This person who raised concerns that patients could not opt in or out of having their records stored on Google's servers, and that the project may not be HIPAA compliant. The

United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

(HHS) launched an inquiry into Google's partnership with Ascension. The investigation will be run by HHS' Office of Civil Rights. Director Roger Severino said, his office "would like to learn more information about this mass collection of individuals' medical records with respect to the implications for patient privacy under [the

of 1996 or HIPAA]."

References

External links

Our Partnership with Ascension
Google Cloud blog post and FAQ {{Google LLC 2019 establishments in the United States 2019 controversies in the United States Healthcare in the United States Catholic health care Code names Google Cloud Electronic health records Medical controversies in the United States Projects established in 2019 Databases in the United States

History

Types of data

Investigations

See also

References

External links