Marcus Baw Profile picture
Jun 16, 2021 20 tweets 13 min read Read on X
@NHSEngland today ran a webinar in which it was claimed that the @PalantirTech #Palantir #Foundry data platform used for the COVID-19 Data Store was "a contract awarded in open competition".

This contract had to be obtained by @openDemocracy through legal action.
If the contract itself was kept secret, it is hard to see how the contract could have been awarded in "open competition using normal procurement rules"

opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/weve…
When the contract was published it turned out that the original contract cost was £1. One pound.

opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/it-s…

How exactly does an organisation like @NHSEngland think this fits with "normal procurement"?
The reasoning was, of course, all explained away as related to the COVID crisis, and nobody was surprised when the subsequent contract extension was for £1 MILLION.
But, from the webinar today, it's clear that this Foundry platform, which is just one of MANY data science platforms, is being quietly but deeply embedded into the day-to-day functioning of the entire English NHS.
Here's the link to the webinar (it was actually called a "mini-huddle" but WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT)

events.england.nhs.uk/events/foundry…

Not sure if the recording (it was recorded) will be shared anywhere - if anyone finds it please do link here.
This whole thing needs a serious dose of transparency. Who decided that we need to embed an ethically questionable company at the centre of @NHSX and @NHSEngland

Who green-lights a £1 contract, knowing this is a Drug Dealer Business Model?
I'm concerned at this direction of travel and I think we should be asking questions and backing @openDemocracy @medConfidential @Foxglovelegal and others who are holding this organisation to account.
Interestingly the link to the original webinar has disappeared. Nothing to see here.

events.england.nhs.uk/events/foundry…

It's here on @waybackmachine though

web.archive.org/web/2021061512…
So you might be asking "why do I need to care that Palantir Foundry is now becoming the main data analytics platform for NHS England?"

The answer is in the 'Planning' bit of #GPDPR GP Data For Planning and Research.

National 'Planning' flows are likely to flow to Foundry
NHSE are open about the fact that the COVID-19 Data Store has access to "pseudonymised data" - possibly better described as

"INDIVIDUAL LEVEL, RE-IDENTIFIABLE DATA"

It's in the Privacy Notice for the C19DS:
england.nhs.uk/contact-us/pri…

kudos @EinsteinsAttic for spotting change
Words like

"pseudonymisation"
"de-identification"

are used to obfuscate that this is individual level data - a full, longitudinal health record of one person.
So, finally the dots all join up and you can see how two apparently unrelated programmes of work unite.

GP Data for Planning and Research

feeds

Palantir Foundry

It's only *this week* that it was obvious from outside, and from public documents.
The data in the NHS is described by @EY_UKI as worth £10 billion per year

digitalhealth.net/2019/07/nhs-da….

This is the data we are emphatically NOT SELLING. No, we're giving it away.
It's important to note that until 2019 @NHSDigital had a MoU with the Home Office that allowed them to access medical data for the purposes of 'investigation' - the MoU is in the public domain *now* but only after a legal fight.

> Baw's Law: "All data will be abused"
So it's quite difficult to have trust and faith in a government that wants *more data*, when that same government also wants to curtail your right to protest



All these things are linked: #GPDPR #TIGRR #DataStrategy #KilltheBill #HealthBill #Palantir
.@DavidDavisMP is absolutely smashing it out of the park right now (I never thought I'd hear myself say this) in Adjournment Debate parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/bf…

@bengoldacre @sebbacon @Foxglovelegal namechecked, and he's saying exactly what needs to be said here.

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More from @marcus_baw

Dec 11, 2023
As you all know I'm not one for being overly critical of drivel. But I'm going to make an exception and challenge every inaccuracy in this (well-meaning) article. (thread)

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
With all due apology to Martha Gill of the Observer who wrote it. I do think there is some good intention here, but the problem is that: Healthcare is complex. Technology is complex. Healthcare technology is very complex. Trying to simplify it leads to utter bollocks.
"A unified database could be a medical gamechanger"

Well, that's very debatable in itself, but let me spell this out:

The NHS Federated Data Platform will not be a unified data platform.

Does the word FEDERATED not give that away? Image
Read 25 tweets
May 26, 2022
I'm sure well-intentioned @CamCavendish but this piece completely mashes up #datasharing for #DirectCare of a patient and data sharing for #ResearchAndPlanning, and other 'secondary uses'. These are VERY different in legal basis, IT systems, and privacy.

ft.com/content/dc01b3…
It's complex and it doesn't make for punchy articles, but it's very important that we are totally clear about the distinction between Direct Care and Planning/Research.

At present, data sharing for Direct Care STILL lags significantly behind data sharing for secondary uses
Because they are built on totally different technologies, progress towards Research and Planning uses of #GPData doesn't advance the cause for Direct Care one iota.

Which is why it's so important the distinction is made and understood. Conflating the issues is counterproductive.
Read 18 tweets
Jun 21, 2021
It really feels like we're in the grip of #NHSdataFEVER...
What's going on?

In last few weeks:

#GPDPR - a huge change in how data that your GP saves in your personal GP record gets shared with the Government. The #DPIA (Data Privacy Impact Assessment) still awaited
#TIGRR - a bonkers, breathless AI-centric libertarian wish-list of data deregulation including abolition of some Articles from our own #GDPR laws (NOT EU law, it's UK law)
Tomorrow there will be a new NHS Data Strategy - which conflates many different uses of data to try to send a ALL DATA GOOD MOAR PLEASE message without any real clarity of thought.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 15, 2021
RFC: Baw's Unofficial DRAFT standards for "NHS Prescribable Apps":

(I was asked for an opinion by email but thought worth sharing here)

1) App code must be released as open source (and thereby low cost and openly auditable for clinical safety and what data is stored
2) Apps must be developed by the NHS, for the NHS, using in-house technical talent.

3) Apps should gather the absolute minimum of data, and have an absolute ban on 'surprising' T&Cs or unexpected data gathering.
4) App must be fully owned and operated by NHS organisations on a non-profit basis (eg cost recovery only) These need to be seen like the 'generic drugs' of the NHS clinical app world. Safe, understood, cheap, and reliably available.
Read 8 tweets
May 28, 2021
OK, I'm sorry. (I'm not) but BULL SHIT.

I'm calling 'bullshit' on the whole Consultancy scam. @NHSX have commissioned @kscopehealth to help them produce a Digital Clinical Safety Strategy.

Consultancy takes cash, then go and ask dozens of actual (unpaid) experts.
So the Strategy will actually have been written by unpaid NHS safety and other clinical experts, but a private company pockets a wedge of cash for organising a few Teams calls.

On today's call they had us writing our responses in the Teams chat to make their job even easier.
@NHSX seems to be a machine for recruiting for highly paid Director of <NOUN> posts, and then outsourcing the thing that Director is supposed to have expertise in to an outside company.
Read 10 tweets
Mar 26, 2021
NHS tectonic/vulcanology update:

Just when NHSX was all settled in and progress was starting to happen... No eruptions for years... New NHSE Transformation Directorate pops up like a shiny new Icelandic archipelago
...clouds of ash will obscure a clear view of anything for years. Progress will be impeded while locals move their goats away from the lava flows
...management consultancies line up to bathe in the fresh and copious hot springs created by the eruption...
Read 8 tweets

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