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Reports suggest Amazon has been given NHS data for free

Healthcare

CIO Bulletin
2019-12-09

Amazon has been working on making its entry into the healthcare segment for quite a while now. In a major win for Amazon, UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is giving the company access to its data.

The data that will be available to Amazon excludes patient data. But the data available to it will make it possible for the tech/e-commerce mogul to advertise and sell its products.

A NHS spokesperson said: “No patient data is being provided to this company by the NHS, which takes data privacy extremely seriously and has put appropriate safeguards in place to ensure information is used correctly.”

NHS is one of the most recognized healthcare services in the world and availability of the data will allow Alexa devices to offer expert health advice to users. The development may help by reducing the pressure of the GPs and pharmacists. The deal between NHS and Amazon was negotiated and agreed upon earlier this year in July.

But Amazon is not the only leading tech company collecting healthcare data. It is believed that Google too is working with healthcare services in the U.S with similar ambitions.