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| Google stops doctors support app Streams |
Google is usually known for completing products within a short period of time. After reshaping the healthcare business recently, the company confirmed that it will no longer use the Streams Medicaid app.
The app is described as a wearable medical device by Google Health PR and was developed in 2015 by DeepMind, one of the company's artificial intelligence divisions.
It was used by the UK's National Health Service over the next several years, and the NHS Trust and DeepMind Health signed a number of agreements to provide Streams to clinicians.
The Royal Free Hospital in London is still using the app in its hospitals. But it couldn't be longer.
The company will terminate the app and keep it updated with apps such as the Google+ social network and the internet balloon company Loon.
University College London confirmed that it cut ties with Google Health earlier this year. "Our contract with Google Health (originally DeepMind) expires in March 2021," she said. Google Health deleted all data that was kept after Project Streams ended.
Imperial College Healthcare also announced that it will stop using streams this summer (July). She added that the patient's data will be deleted.
A spokesperson said: "Following the NHS Trust's discontinuation of broadcasting earlier this summer, data processed by Google Health to provide services to the NHS Trust will be deleted and the agreement will be terminated.
In accordance with the data sharing agreement, all patient data processed by Google Health to provide the service will be deleted. The deletion process begins after the contract expires, as Google has a six-month contract to delete patient data.
The Streams contract between DeepMind and the NHS Trusts has a term of five years. Hence, it is likely that these contracts will expire soon.
The contract extension must be agreed upon by both parties. Google's decision to terminate Streams may be a factor in the NHS Trusts' lack of enthusiasm to continue using the programme.
The Streams app does not contain any artificial intelligence. Although it was developed by Google's AI department.
The goal of the project is to find a way to integrate artificial intelligence into the streams so that the app can generate predictive health alerts.
Google stops doctors support app Streams
The Streams algorithm warns clinicians that patients are at risk of acute kidney damage. But it is based on the acute kidney injury algorithm developed by the NHS. Hence, Streams digitizes existing practices and makes them portable.
Hence, it seems odd that the AI division of the high-tech giant is interested in building, deploying, and sustaining long-term medical support programs.
DeepMind and the NHS Trust, with which they developed Streams, initially had bigger ambitions for their partnership.
Plus, the company has been lobbying for years, writing in 2019: Streams don't currently use AI. But the team now plans to find a way to securely integrate predictive AI models into the streams to provide clinicians with intelligent information about a patient's deteriorating condition.
During the development phase of Streams, millions of patient information were submitted to DeepMind. This may explain DeepMind's enthusiasm for a project that it believes will provide free access to a rich source of patient data. It's about training AI systems for health.
DeepMind announced in 2018 that it was moving away from Streams. She entrusted the app and all of her data to Google Health. Google's internal department focuses on health.