Fallout From Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ Revelation: A Federal Inquiry, Lawmakers’ Criticism And Patient Privacy Fears

The Wall Street Journal: Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ Triggers Federal Inquiry
Google’s project with the country’s second-largest health system to collect detailed health information on 50 million American patients sparked a federal inquiry and criticism from patients and lawmakers. The data on patients of St. Louis-based Ascension were until recently scattered across 40 data centers in more than a dozen states. Google and the Catholic nonprofit are moving that data into Google’s cloud-computing system—with potentially big changes on tap for doctors and patients. At issue for regulators and lawmakers who expressed concern is whether Google and Ascension are adequately protecting patient data in the initiative, which is code-named “Project Nightingale” and is aimed at crunching data to produce better health care, among other goals. (Copeland and Needleman, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Lawmakers Scold Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ Over Health-Data Privacy
Several U.S. lawmakers called for sharper regulatory scrutiny of patient health-data deals, including one between Google and the nonprofit health system Ascension, on concerns such arrangements run afoul of federal privacy rules regarding medical records. ... Sens. Mark Warner (D., Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), Bill Cassidy (R., La.) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) are among legislators who separately issued statements raising serious concern over the arrangement. Mr. Warner urged Congress or the Department of Health and Human Services to halt it pending an investigation. (Needleman and Copeland, 11/12)

The Hill: Google Sparks New Privacy Fears Over Health Care Data 
Google’s work to help Ascension, the nation’s largest nonprofit health system, collect and analyze data on millions of patients is coming under intense scrutiny from lawmakers and privacy advocates. The project received little attention until a Wall Street Journal report on Monday that noted the initiative may already have health data on millions of Americans and that patients had not been notified. (Rodrigo, 11/13)

Bloomberg: Google Denies It’s Using Private Health Data For AI Research
Google’s top health and cloud executives said the company isn’t misusing health data from one of the biggest U.S. health-care providers, pushing back against news reports that have triggered criticism from politicians of the search giant. Google employees only have access to patient information in order to build a new internal search tool for the Ascension hospital network, said David Feinberg, head of Google Health. No patient data is being used for Google’s artificial intelligence research, he added. (De Vynck, 11/12)

Politico Pro: Google’s New Partnership Might Creep You Out. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Illegal.
A massive, secret data-sharing agreement that Google and health system Ascension entered into last year without explicit consent from patients and clinicians is arousing alarm from privacy advocates. The fact that it may all be perfectly legal suggests that current privacy laws don't guard against data sharing practices that most people find just plain creepy. (Ravindranath, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Google’s Health Care Ambitions Now Involve Patient Data
Google announced a partnership with a large U.S. health care system aimed at modernizing its information system and providing new tools for doctors, in the tech giant’s latest foray into the health industry. Announcement of its arrangement with the Catholic health care system Ascension followed a Wall Street Journal report on Monday that Google had access to thousands of patient health records without doctors’ knowledge. (Lerman, 11/12)

In other health and technology news —

Stat: Valued For Their Tech, Silicon Valley Digital Health Companies Rely Heavily On Armies Of Faraway Coaches
Digital health companies like Omada are now booming businesses. Although their models vary, they all monitor and educate people with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and depression — and make money by charging their employers or health plans, with the promise of ultimately lowering medical costs. In just the past few months, leading companies in the sector have gone public, been acquired by Google (GOOGL), and raised tens of millions of dollars of venture capital funding. (Robbins, 11/13)