It was announced last year that the controversial tech firm Palantir had won a huge new contract with the NHS to provide a digital platform for the management of health data. The company will provide the NHS with a new “federated data platform” which will help existing systems to connect more smoothly and manage data more efficiently. Proponents would like us to think it is simply an efficient system for data management and decision making; but the hidden logics perhaps point to the encouragement of a more suspicious and exclusionary approach to health management. Much of the controversy over this contract has come from privacy concerns with so much patient data seemingly being handed over to a private company and especially one with a chequered history and dubious political affiliations. While some of the worry over this contract has been framed as encroachment of private enterprise into the sacred sphere of the NHS, such partnerships are far from unusual. At least 101 contracts have been awarded to private companies just by NHS digital in the last year. A significant part of the concern comes from the history of Palantir’s founder and chair Peter Thiel. A significant player in Silicon Valley, … Continue reading Will a controversial new data platform change how the NHS “thinks”?
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Will a controversial new data platform change how the NHS “thinks”?
It was announced last year that the controversial tech firm Palantir had won a huge new contract with the NHS to provide a digital platform for the management of health data. The company will provide the NHS with a new “federated data platform” which will help existing systems to connect more smoothly and manage data more efficiently. Proponents would like us to think it is simply an efficient system for data management and decision making; but the hidden logics perhaps point to the encouragement of a more suspicious and exclusionary approach to health management. Much of the controversy over this contract has come from privacy concerns with so much patient data seemingly being handed over to a private company and especially one with a chequered history and dubious political affiliations. While some of the worry over this contract has been framed as encroachment of private enterprise into the sacred sphere of the NHS, such partnerships are far from unusual. At least 101 contracts have been awarded to private companies just by NHS digital in the last year. A significant part of the concern comes from the history of Palantir’s founder and chair Peter Thiel. A significant player in Silicon Valley, … Continue reading Will a controversial new data platform change how the NHS “thinks”?