AI could improve the health outcomes of thousands of people through early diagnosis of cancer and chronic disease. But there’s a catch: this could also allow commercial firms access to NHS data.

Which means, despite noble intentions, your medical records are being put on sale -- again.

There’s no denying that the vast NHS records will contain the information we need for life-saving treatments, but that doesn’t mean they should end up on the servers of private corporations.

And on Monday, we heard that 150,000 medical records were shared against patient’s wishes with both public and private sector organisations. We have to make sure that our privacy is at the heart of any deals made over our medical data. With your help, we can push for transparent rules to ensure patient privacy in data deals! 

AI could save the lives of up to 22,000 cancer patients each year. But without careful management and regulation, stories like the Royal Free Hospital selling 1.6 million patient records to Google’s DeepMind project could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Privacy rights groups have warned that patient confidentiality is seriously at risk. Your medical data is unique -- those with access to it could easily identify you. Without proper, airtight controls on our privacy, companies could be flicking through our medical records.

We need more transparency from this government on what it will do with our data to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

There are still concerns about the practical implementation of high-tech AI software with ‘clunky and outdated’ hospital IT systems, and whether handing day-to-day decision making over to algorithms could make hospitals more open to cyber attacks.

Last year's ransomware attack meant cancelled operations diverted ambulances and inaccessible patient records -- we simply can't put NHS cyber-security at risk again.

This government’s care.data scheme tried to collect and sell our NHS data before, but thousands of SumOfUs members like you fought back -- and we won.

Now it’s time to fight back again: we can’t let our medical records be used for anything other than patient care.

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