https://www.washingtonexaminer...ns-of-health-records



Google and one of the nation's largest health systems are reportedly working together to collect health information from millions of Americans without their knowledge.

Google and St. Louis-based Ascension began collecting patient lab results, diagnoses, and hospitalization records last year as part of an initiative they coined “Project Nightingale,” the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Ascension said Monday that it is trying to “deliver a comprehensive portfolio of digital capabilities that enhance the experience of Ascension consumers, patients, and clinical providers across the continuum of care.”

Patients and physicians didn't know that Google was collecting tens of millions of private health records as a part of Project Nightingale. The objective, an Ascension representative said, is to put all patient documents on Google’s cloud platform so that all Ascension employees can “communicate and collaborate securely in real-time.”

Google Cloud president Tariq Shaukat, said in Ascension’s statement, “By working in partnership with leading healthcare systems like Ascension, we hope to transform the delivery of healthcare through the power of the cloud, data analytics, machine learning, and modern productivity tools — ultimately improving outcomes, reducing costs, and saving lives.”

Ascension and Google say Project Nightingale is compliant with the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, often called HIPAA for short, which was enacted to protect patient privacy and secure health information. Under HIPAA regulations, patients' health records cannot be shared with anyone who doesn't contribute to the patient's care. For example, managers can't get copies of medical records, and providers can't disclose private information to other clinicians or the general public.

I'd like to see how Google is going to defend themselves in court on this. They have no business having patients' PHI (Protected Health Information).

It doesn't appear to be Google doing stuff with medical records, it appears to be a medical records management company using Google's cloud servers as the back end to their medical record software.

This is nothing new, virtually every hospital and many doctors offices use medical record management software that stores everything on off-site servers.

Sounds like that could be a HIPAA violation - giving Patient data to someone that doesn't need it without the patient's permission.

This is such a stupid, non-story it's not even funny.

If you're going to get your panties in a wad because Google is providing cloud services to a Health records vendor, you're really going to get upset when you learn about AWS, Microsoft Azure, and any number of the 100s of DataCenter/compute providers out there.

Several doctors told me Obamacare forced electronic medical records on everyone and this is where we’ve ended up.

No doubt it was in the fine print somewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I'd like to see how Google is going to defend themselves in court on this. They have no business having patients' PHI (Protected Health Information).

It is for your/their own good!!!! The mantra of all socialists.....

Google, the company that refuses to do artificial intelligence research with the Pentagon but will with with business in China.
They claim they only work with Chinese business, not the PLA, although they are one and the same.
If you believe that....

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
No doubt it was in the fine print somewhere.

You have to pass the bill to find out what's in it...

I posted that Goodle and FB have been collecting gun data and some people thought I was wearing a tin foil hat.
Regardless, these people are data mining on a scale un-comprehensible to the average person.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I'd like to see how Google is going to defend themselves in court on this. They have no business having patients' PHI (Protected Health Information).

Google is providing cloud storage space to Ascension, aka public cloud. Ascension is using a VNA (vendor neutral archive) to write data to the Google Cloud. To Google, this data is just bits and bytes. They do not have the front end application access to see, access or use this data in any way.

This is no different than Ascension storing PHI in any other common storage appliance. Most large healthcare providers are storing data with any number of cloud storage providers as the cost and resources required to store all of the data Hospitals are required by law to keep is becoming untenable in an onsite model.

I can assure you all, as this is my business, there is absolutely nothing nefarious happening here on the part of either party.

TXJIM-

Although I see your point, I do not trust Alphabet/Google at all. Data that resides on their storage is accessible to the Admin and doubtless Google.

I quit Google and went to DuckDuckGo after I kept getting ads related to prior searches...

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
TXJIM-

Although I see your point, I do not trust Alphabet/Google at all. Data that resides on their storage is accessible to the Admin and doubtless Google.

I quit Google and went to DuckDuckGo after I kept getting ads related to prior searches...

No, it's really not. The data is written in a format that Google can not read. It's not like these files are in a common format like the pictures on your phone. The application storing this data is using it's own proprietary storage scheme that is specific to its application and database.

If I wrote my personal information in a notebook, in a language and formatting that I made up, and paid you to store it in your safe would you be able to use my information?

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
TXJIM-

Although I see your point, I do not trust Alphabet/Google at all.

This would be my problem with it.

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
Data that resides on their storage is accessible to the Admin and doubtless Google.

Assuming Ascension is storing the data with strong encryption: While the bits are certainly accessible with the proper permissions, making anything of them would be an entirely different matter.

E.g.: I have lots of very sensitive information stored in Apple's iCloud--including my electronic keyring, which contains every credential to every on-line resource I use, and more. But Apple encrypts the data, and my keyring encrypts it even before Apple's servers re-encrypt it. Could somebody eventually break it? Sure. Given enough time and/or resources: Of course they could.

Given enough time and resources, they could also compromise any of my devices or my home network.

I don't trust Alphabet/Google any further than I can throw them, but I suspect this is a tempest in a teapot.

I read today that Google is interested in using this data to develop AI technology.

I do far simpler versions of what Google is interested in doing. Having the right type of data available to develop database scanning software of any kind is a must-have for the success of the project.

You can't do much better than a huge database of medical records. The possibility of finding patterns and correlations must be very attractive to them.

I bet they would kill to have access to the IRS database.

V.

Zero Hedge is reporting feds have initiated an investigation already.

https://www.zerohedge.com/tech...-project-nightingale

quote:

Originally posted by TXJIM:

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
TXJIM-

Although I see your point, I do not trust Alphabet/Google at all. Data that resides on their storage is accessible to the Admin and doubtless Google.

I quit Google and went to DuckDuckGo after I kept getting ads related to prior searches...

No, it's really not. The data is written in a format that Google can not read. It's not like these files are in a common format like the pictures on your phone. The application storing this data is using it's own proprietary storage scheme that is specific to its application and database.

If I wrote my personal information in a notebook, in a language and formatting that I made up, and paid you to store it in your safe would you be able to use my information?

Further more, Google is required, like they all are, to certify as HIPPA compliant, along with all the other regulations, for the storage, transmission, and access to this information.

Not only that, but do you think Ascension is going to open themselves up to lawsuits and gov't scrutiney by allowing someone to just access their data?

Google is a platform provider just like any number of platform providers.

Similar to Jim, I've spent years in Consulting with quite a few of them in Healthcare and there is absolutely nothing to this story. It's even written like an Alex Jones piece and has no business on any credible news site.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I'd like to see how Google is going to defend themselves in court on this. They have no business having patients' PHI (Protected Health Information).

Google has little to worry about. They have so many people in so many places, all singing the same tune.

Small shit like violating patient privacy, etc et etc, mean nothing to them. It's all about the power and bucks.

quote:

Originally posted by PD:
Several doctors told me Obamacare forced electronic medical records on everyone and this is where we’ve ended up.

Yup! That is what my doctor told me, too.