Big Tech dives into Health Care, but can they keep it Private?

Big Tech, already under a withering spotlight from Congress for mishandling some user data, is delving further into the health care field — a world defined by its privacy pitfalls.  Giant companies have earned regulatory wrist-slaps for fumbling sensitive personal information, but the stakes are much higher for poorly protected health data.  Recent moves, some unfolding in secret, show the reach of the companies’ ambition — and, in some cases, their lack of preparation for the minefields.

• Last week, the Wall Street Journal broke news of an agreement between Google and Ascension, the second-largest health care system in the country, that gave Google access to data from 50 million patients without informing them. The government is investigating the system’s privacy protections.
• On Friday, The Washington Post reported that Google had pulled the plug on a project with the National Institutes of Health in 2017 when NIH warned that the 100,000 X-ray images it was about to publish could identify the patients.
• Apple, which has put health at the center of its products, announced three new research studies for Apple Watch owners — one of which aims to enroll a million women, monitoring them as they go about their daily lives. The New York Times reports that doctors say it’s still unclear how useful these large-scale studies are.

Med tech is a hugely lucrative and fast-growing field, but it’s been plagued by setbacks driven in part by a mismatch between can-do engineers and a more deliberate clinical culture.  So why would they take the risk?  Because they the health care world is extremely lucrative and they want a piece of that money pie.

In the meantime, Americans are hopeful that Big Tech can play a significant role with the quagmire that is the healthcare industry. In a PwC survey, majorities said they’re at least somewhat confident tech companies will be able to: improve patient satisfaction, reduce costs, simplify health care, and make personal health care information more accessible to patients.

Of course, it hasn’t happened… yet. The most significant progress so far would be on that last front, making personal health data more accessible — that’s where Apple is focusing a lot of its health care energy, and the early reviews are generally pretty positive. But even that is still in its early stages.

Right now, Apple is trying to get Medicare Advantage insurers to offer subsidized Apple Watches to seniors, for use as health trackers, CNBC’s Christina Farr reports.  Other tech companies have made moves into the health care world, none splashier than Amazon buying PillPack, but so far they’ve largely been pretty traditional.  As it stands, Silicon Valley seems to be better at getting a piece of the health care system than changing it.

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