[AlexandrB]

The headline is not alarming enough. This is being done without proper consent from patients and the healthcare "innovation" is likely to be inaccessible to many of those same patients due to how unaffordable health care (including preventative care) is in the US.

Edit: It basically doesn't matter what procedure Google's algorithm says you should get. If your insurance doesn't want to cover it, you're not getting it.

[noelsusman]

Those forms you sign when you go to the doctor include consent to transmit your data to third parties as allowed under HIPAA regulations.

[rickncliff]

Evidently "consent" isn't lawfully required. The hope is that any breakthrough might lower healthcare costs, and in the worst case scenario at least some patients might benefit which is still a win.

[AlexandrB]

> Evidently "consent" isn't lawfully required.

Ethics != law. Just because it's lawful doesn't mean it's ethical or that we shouldn't be outraged.

Edit: > The hope is that any breakthrough might lower healthcare costs

Perhaps then Google should instead lobby hard for single-payer. Most countries with a single-payer systems have lower health care costs than the US. It's a proven solution that will lower costs, not a "hope".

[sukilot]

Is it your claim that only a trivial portion of the $billions in healthcare spending is being spent on healthcare for the average insured people?