‘Mistrust’ of Palantir may affect NHS research, says health minister
TL;DR
James Frith says patients may be less willing to share data as new figures show a rise in opt-outs Concern is being raised about Palantir’s work with the NHS as new figures showed tens of thousands of patients have withdrawn their data from use in research projects. James Frith, the health innovation minister, said he was worried about “mistrust” of the US defence and health tech company and “the impact it could have on people’s willingness to share data with the NHS”. Continue reading...
Nauti's Take
A minister naming the mistrust openly counts as progress, because opt-out numbers turn an otherwise invisible trust problem into something measurable. The risk is concrete: the more people withhold their records, the more skewed the remaining data becomes, and research into underserved groups suffers first.
Any organisation handling health data should explain provenance and purpose limits before opt-outs climb further.
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