NPR

When Scientists Develop Products From Personal Medical Data, Who Gets To Profit?

Data from patient medical records are being used to develop commercial products. What rights do we have over the use of our personal health information?
Source: Katherine Streeter for NPR

If you go to the hospital for medical treatment and scientists there decide to use your medical information to create a commercial product, are you owed anything as part of the bargain?

That's one of the questions that is emerging as researchers and product developers eagerly delve into digital data such as CT scans and electronic medical records, making artificial-intelligence products that are helping doctors to manage information and even to help them diagnose disease.

This issue cropped up in 2016, when Google DeepMind decided to test an app that measures kidney health by gathering 1.6 million records from patients at the Royal Free Hospital in London. The British authorities found in the United Kingdom and put a stop to

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