1

Dan Wanner
Professor Probst Martin
ENGLI 1102
7 December 2016
The Importance of Sharing Medical Data
In society today, we are familiar with the concept of online privacy, as well as how often
that privacy is encroached upon. When news sources started reporting that the NHS was sharing
patient healthcare records from London hospitals with DeepMind, Googles artificial intelligence
division, there was initially an acute public outcry; shouldnt that be illegal? Shouldnt hospitals
respect patient privacy? Surprisingly, hospitals share with third parties quite commonly thanks to
the data remaining anonymous, and modern analyzation techniques make it possible to glean
more information from health data than ever. This data can then be used to improve treatments
and increase the accuracy of diagnoses. If everyone chose to share their medical data, it would
benefit the health of patients and improve society as a whole.
One concern of patients with sharing medical information is that it wont remain
confidential. This is largely due to lack of awareness of how the medical system operates in the
realm of information technology. In the article Sharing Electronic Health Records: The Patient
View, a study was conducted regarding how comfortable patients are with sharing their medical
records for analysis. The study showed that a majority of patients agreed to share their health
data, and that among patients who felt uncomfortable sharing, the majority of items identified
were related to mental and sexual health. This fits with the commonly held assumption that
matters related to sensitive or embarrassing issues, which may affect how the patient will be
treated by other individuals or institutions, are most likely to be censored by patients. (Powell

2
56). While this wariness is understandable, it would likely put more minds at ease if patients had
more trust in the safety of their data and how it could benefit the welfare of others.
Indeed, patient privacy is the top priority regarding the use of health information, and the
NHS has strict rules for confidentiality specifically put into place for sharing information with
third parties ("Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice). The most important step that is taken to
ensure privacy is that all data is first anonymized before being processed. During this process,
patient identities are disassociated from their useful medical information so that the data can be
used for analysis without infringing upon the patients privacy. In an article in Informatics In
Primary Care discussing the different criteria for being anonymized, Robert Navarro gives an
example of how relevant data can be separated from identity on a case-by-case basis: By
recognizing that one project needs pristine diagnosis codes but can cope with blurred
demographics (age range instead of date of birth, region instead of postcode, etc.) for example, it
is possible to lose less important information and still get useful results (Navarro 259). From
there, the data can only be used by the third party doing the analysis. According to DeepMind,
there are many steps taken on their end to decrease security risks. All data transfers are
encrypted, data is only decrypted when needed, all data access is logged and reviewed, and the
data is permanently deleted after analysis.
Due to DeepMinds access to new technologies and artificial intelligence, this
information has more potential than ever to help improve treatments. Right now, the health
division of DeepMind is in its early stages, but it is already showing what health data can do in
the right hands. In the short time that they been associated with the NHS, DeepMind has been
finding faster and more effective treatments for kidney injuries and eye diseases, as well as
speeding up the planning of radiotherapy treatments for cancer patients (Research). This use of

3
artificial intelligence in the healthcare system also has massive potential in the United States.
According to the article Medicine by Machine, medical error is the third leading cause of death
in the US, and a significant portion of that can be attributed to incorrect diagnoses. It is nearly
impossible for doctors to be up to date on all possible conditions and their signs, and artificial
intelligence can be used analyze data in order to arrive at a more accurate diagnosis.
In addition to the use of artificial intelligence, DeepMind has said that they are looking at
using analyzing the data to determine how to make communication more effective between
doctors and their patients. One plan is to develop a patient-doctor portal in which doctors could
more easily search through medical history and patients could have greater access to their own
records. For example, if they suddenly had a change in condition, experienced problems with a
treatment, or found a mistake in their history, they could report it much more easily than what is
available today. In Potential impacts of Patient Access to Their Electronic Health Records,
patients were interviewed regarding their concerns with accuracy and interest in online access
regarding their records. Overall, patients responded positively to the concept of increased access
to their records, responding that they felt it would improve their understanding of their
diagnoses, improve their relationship with their doctor, and improve their records accuracy if
something was wrong. DeepMinds idea of improving doctors and nurses use of medical
records is also highly appropriate. In the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery there is a study
reporting the inefficiencies due to the current state of electronic health record infrastructure.
Satisfaction among clinicians of electronic health record systems is dropping due to vendors
tailoring their systems to the needs of the system operators instead of the people who will be
accessing it, the clinicians themselves. This leads to a lack of clinically optimized systems which
doctors see as too rigid and standardized to give a full exchange of health information (Shaha

4
1980). Since electronic health records could potentially be a powerful tool between patients and
doctors for exchanging information, the doctors concerns could be alleviated by the
implementation of DeepMinds new system.
The importance of sharing medical data is difficult to overstate; any steps that can safely
be taken to improve the health and welfare of others should be taken. Given that people share
their names, addresses, personal lives, and bank account details on the internet every day, it is
odd that some draw the line with health data, where sharing has the power to do the most good.
The larger a sample size is, the more effective its analysis is, meaning that more patients health
can improve. Although some patients may have concerns over privacy, these concerns are due to
ignorance of the current methods of sharing and analysis available today, and current technology
can make sharing data more beneficial than ever before.

Works Cited
Honeyman, Alasdair, Benita Cox, and Brian Fisher. "Potential Impacts Of Patient Access To
Their Electronic Care Records." Informatics In Primary Care 13.1 (2005): 5560. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

5
Navarro, Robert. "An Ethical Framework For Sharing Patient Data Without Consent."
Informatics In Primary Care 16.4 (2008): 257-262. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16
Nov. 2016.
Powell, John, Richard Fitton, and Caroline Fitton. "Sharing Electronic Health Records: The
Patient View." Informatics In Primary Care 14.1 (2006): 55-57. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
Shaha, James S., et al. "The Growing Gap In Electronic Medical Record Satisfaction
Between Clinicians And Information Technology Professionals: Issues Of Most Concern
And Suggested Remediations." Journal Of Bone & Joint Surgery, American Volume
97.23 (2015): 1979-1984. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
Rutkin, Aviva. "Medicine By Machine." New Scientist 231.3089 (2016): 20-21. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.
"Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice." National Health Service, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
<http://systems.digital.nhs.uk/infogov/confidentiality>.
"Research." DeepMind. DeepMind Technologies Limited, 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
<https://deepmind.com/applied/deepmind-health/research/>.