Health trusts swapped patient data for shares in an AI firm. They may have lost millions
- Reference: 1657101931
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/06/sensyne_nhs_deals/
- Source link:
The company, Sensyne Health, is a fledgling AI business trying to discover and develop new medicines.
The NHS hospitals – Great Ormond Street Hospital; Somerset NHS Foundation Trust; University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital; Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Milton Keynes University Hospital; Royal Wolverhampton NHS Foundation Trust; and Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust – were among those that had signed Strategic Research Agreements (SRA) with the UK startup which involved sharing patient health records in exchange for shares in the company.
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The series of deals with healthcare and research organizations were intended to see "de-identified" health records of 12.1 million patients in the UK used to "carry out research with the potential of providing new understanding and treatments for various diseases."
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Meanwhile, five other NHS trusts — Cambridge University Hospital, Royal Devon and Exeter, George Eliot Hospital, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, and Wye Valley — struck deals in the last year which remained subject to a Section 593 valuation report by the Company, according to [5]a statement from Cambridge University Hospital in which it said it was set to receive 4,285,714 ordinary shares in Sensyne Health.
We understand that on Cambridge University Hospital's part, some conditions had to be fulfilled before CUH was issued with shares and they weren't ultimately issued.
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Sensyne's shares were delisted from AIM in May, after [7]the agreement of a financing deal which saw the introduction of a new management team.
In a statement to The Register , Cambridge University Hospital trust said:
"CUH is at an early stage of a partnership with Sensyne. We have shared no data with Sensyne, and we hold no shares. We are aware that Sensyne is currently going through a restructuring process and we are waiting to see the outcome of this. As always, we will be driven by what we believe is in the best interests of our patients both in the short and long term."
Value lost...
However, at least seven trusts, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, have lost out after striking deals they thought would be worth millions of pounds in exchange for sharing patient data. At the time Sensyne Health was delisted, loan notes were offered at a conversion price of 0.8 pence per share.
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children also appears to have been receiving funding from Sensyne. "Since Sensyne has delisted from AIM, GOSH cannot assign a value to the shares held," it said. "Funding from Sensyne is enabling the development of the hospital's data infrastructure to achieve our ambition to advance paediatric healthcare and research outcomes."
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In a statement shared with The Register , Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said that under its deal, announced in 2020, a total of 1,428,571 shares were issued at a notional value 175p per share, or about £2.5 million (c $3 million).
"While the Trust still holds shares in the company, these are no longer traded on the stock market and as a result there is no readily available valuation of the shares," the statement said.
However, the trust said it had not yet shared data under the agreement. "We are meeting with Sensyne Health to discuss the changes to the company, including any requirements under the SRA and the potential restructuring of the company. The trust has not yet sent any data to Sensyne Health and therefore hasn't yet seen the specific benefit of the arrangements," it said.
In 2017, the [9]University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospital were [10]set to receive in aggregate £5 million (c $6 million) worth of equity in Sensyne — then called Drayson Technologies — as part of the Series C funding round.
In its [11]2020-2021 annual report [PDF], Oxford University Hospital valued the equity it held at £7.3 million (c $8.7 million).
An Oxford University Hospital spokesperson refused to say whether it had since sold the shares. In a statement, it said: "We are in regular contact with the new management of Sensyne and they have suggested a review of the current Strategic Research Agreement (SRA) later in the year. We will carefully consider these proposals when we receive them."
The Trust would take over the management of a key software system provided by Sensyne which monitors the vital signs of patients and which it will be using across its hospital sites, the spokesperson said.
In August 2018, [12]Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said it would get a £5 million (c $6 million) equity stake in Sensyne. It has not responded to The Register 's questions over the current value of its stake.
In October 2020, [13]Milton Keynes University Hospital said it would get 1,428,571 ordinary shares in Sensyne Health at a time when the shares were worth share around 90 pence, making its stake initially worth around £1.3 million (c $1.5 million).
[14]Royal Wolverhampton NHS Foundation Trust was set to receive the same number of shares in an agreement announced in January 2021 when shares were worth 120 pence, giving it a £1.7 million (c $2 million) stake.
[15]UK govt promises to sink billions into electronic health records for England
[16]DeepMind founder behind NHS data slurp to be beamed up to Google mothership
[17]Google swallows up DeepMind Health and abolishes 'independent board'
[18]Google DeepMind trial failed to comply with data protection – ICO
[19]Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust was set to get roughly the same stake in a deal announced in November 2020.
[20]South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust also signed an MoU for a strategic partnership with the AI firm, but did not say shares would change hands.
None of these five trusts have responded to The Register 's request for comment.
According to the [21]Health Service Journal , more than 1 million data items have been shared under the agreements during the last two years.
The Journal claimed South Warwickshire FT had received shares worth £6.45 million (c $7.72) in 2018-19 which it had "recognized in full" on its revenue position at the time.
The Register has asked Sensyne Health to comment. ®
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[1] https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/sensyne_health/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=2411&newsid=1585105
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YsWxnjw5k5PiNgfP3MOFQgAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsWxnjw5k5PiNgfP3MOFQgAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YsWxnjw5k5PiNgfP3MOFQgAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-privacy/our-agreement-with-sensyne/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsWxnjw5k5PiNgfP3MOFQgAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/08/lord-drayson-ousted-sensyne-health-investors-secure-rescue-deal/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YsWxnjw5k5PiNgfP3MOFQgAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/ground-breaking-digital-health-deal-agreed-with-drayson-technologies/
[10] https://www.sensynehealth.com/newsroom/sensyne-health-acquires-digital-health-software-product-for-the-treatment-of-heart-failure
[11] https://buckup-cuh-production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2020-21_FULL_VERSION.pdf
[12] https://www.sensynehealth.com/newsroom/sensyne-health-and-chelsea-and-westminster-hospital-nhs-foundation-trust-sign-strategic-research-agreement
[13] https://www.sensynehealth.com/newsroom/sensyne-health-and-milton-keynes-university-hospital-sign-strategic-research-agreement
[14] https://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/media/press-release-archive/press-releases-2021/january-2021/sensyne-health-and-the-royal-wolverhampton-nhs-trust-sign-strategic-research-agreement/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/30/uk_electronic_health_records/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/06/deepmind_founder_shifts_to_google/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2018/11/14/google_swallows_up_deepmind_health_and_abolishes_independent_board/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2017/07/03/google_deepmind_trial_failed_to_comply_with_data_protection_law/
[19] https://www.sensynehealth.com/newsroom/sensyne-health-and-hampshire-hospitals-nhs-foundation-trust-sign-strategic-research-agreement
[20] https://www.sensynehealth.com/newsroom/drayson-health-signs-memorandum-of-understanding-with-south-warwickshire-nhs-foundation-trust
[21] https://www.hsj.co.uk/technology-and-innovation/trusts-left-with-valueless-company-shares-given-in-exchange-for-patient-data/7032723.article
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Whaaat?
Never heard of anyone other than NHS England using it like this as a commodity.
Re: Whaaat?
The surprise is that it is NHS England and not NHS Digital...
Lost money?
If I understand this correctly the NHS trusts haven't lost any money as they didn't spend any. They were swapping anonymised patient records for shares in the startup company. Its a very poor headline.
Re: Lost money?
Only the end result is they gave away patient data to a "well-connected" company.
And even if the hospitals in question managed to earn money out of it, it shouldn't have been done.
Not having had the time to look properly at the director's list on Companies House, I have only found out that the first director in the list was also high up in an NHS Trust so there is a conflict of interest, and there is an high churn rate of directors in this company of others possibly doing the same? (As I said, not enough time.)
But let's shrug and carry on.
Re: Lost money?
I totally agree. Any shares in a startup have no value unless it has a successful exit and most of them don't. I would hope that all of these trusts entered into the relationship because they believed in the chance of successful therapies being developed.
We need a much more nuanced debate about the potential benefit of sharing health data. If we make it more difficult to use by posting reports like this, suggesting that it is being "sold" for monetary gain, then it will take longer to develop treatments and more people will suffer and die. That is not responsible reporting.
Who 'lost out'?
" However, at least seven trusts, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, have lost out after striking deals they thought would be worth millions of pounds in exchange for sharing patient data "
So they didn't get the shares they were offered in exchange for handing over patient data. My heart bleeds for them. I doubt that the cost of 'de-identifying' was a significant loss.
Having worked in healthcare I can safely assert that absolutely anyone's entire health record is impossible to 'de-identify' as it's unique to the individual and it's surprising how little of it is needed in many cases to identify them.And it's been formally demonstrated that when personal data is 'de-identified' its utility declines a lot faster than its actual anonymity improves.
So there's now a stash of (what was it?) 12 million health records of individuals floating about somewhere after the company went bust. I guess it's the data subjects that have really 'lost out', not the hospital trusts. The latter must be forced to recognise that it's not their data .
Re: Who 'lost out'?
This stinks of smart sales people using the perceived magic of "AI" to do clever stuff from a company that has no assets, limited capital and all sorts of dubious links to the people providing the anonymised data.
Just another pyramid scheme where a small number of people have made money at a lot of other people's expense.
Those data sets will have been sold on many times now and who knows what the level of anonymisation was.
Not much comment on patient data
Most of the write up was about the money.
The point is that de-identified personal data has all to often been re-identified. So where will this data end up ? It has value so it may well be sold. When put together by some organisation that has a lot of other personal data: bingo - they now know more people's heath problems.
Were strict limits put on how the data would be used ?
When a company goes bust its assets are often sold to the highest bidder and original "use agreements" ignored or deemed unenforceable ?
Sensyne Health is a UK company so subject to the GDPR (the Tories have not abolished it - yet). I do not know if de-identified data is still subject to the GDPR -- it should be.
Sensyne Health has not (yet) gone bust but may be bought - possibly by a company not subject to the GDPR.
Re: Not much comment on patient data
The de-identified data is very much subject to section 171 of the DPA 2018 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/section/171?view=plain
So the Trusts would have to approve any reversal of the de-identification for it to be legal, which then brings into question their lawful reasons for permitting that.
Re: the Trusts would have to approve ....
I don't doubt that's the legal position. But what enforcement of this will there be? And the data is - covertly or not - shuffled sideways somewhere outside the scope of UK law, is there any realistic likelihood of redress? Against who?
Sensyne Health
So, is that a new branch of Theranos ?
Looks like it.
Re: Sensyne Health
I was half expecting Palantir but I believe they have our medical records already.
Re: I was half expecting Palantir but I believe they have our medical records already.
I think that was why Denethor was so depressed.
A few notes
1) If this is a surprise to anyone then I am amazed you can read
2) No one will face any comeback
3) compare to the untold billions spaffed by this government to it's mates with PPE and the like, this is chump change.
4) Your data ? I hope you waved goodbye to it when you handed it over.
We all need to be ready to be spammed to death (possibly literally) by US healthcare providers who aren't bound by any suggestion of GDPR. Just wait util you start hearing from their affiliate "Christian science" partners for healthcare choices involving contraception and abortion/
A cynical person...
...might be inclined to think that this was just a bullshit ruse for the gullible in order to carry out a mass data grab.
A much more pertinent question than asking about the fantasy money is what sort of protections are in place regarding the data handed over (and no doubt without any patient consent), especially given that - since GOSH is implicated - this is likely to involve medical data of children.
It's high time that it is written in law that NO medical data can be handed to any third party without the express permission (accompanied by a signature) of either the patient or their legal guardian, and that which is given is subject to a no-further-passing rule, with heavy penalties for non compliance.
Enough of this shit.
Re: A cynical person...
Whilst I am completely with you on this the real challenge now with so much held electronically is that one the data is handed over there is no chain as such. it is just a file that can be easily copied, exported and messed around with, usually to make money. One the data has been put somewhere where there is not control, to all intents it is no public.
At least with a paper record it is much more difficult to distribute.
Absolute v Proportional
Telling us that trust A negotiated 1 500 049 shares is not particularly helpful. More interesting would be the proportion of the company owned by trust a, B, C etc. If it were to be a significant then the trusts have some influence and the structure potentialy makes more sense.
Whaaat?
I had no idea my health data (albeit 'de-identified') could be sold for anything by a health trust. I hope there were contractual clauses about what happens to the data in the event of bankruptcy, take-over or other major changes in status. Delisting from AIM sounds a bit worrying to me, but it may be completely innocent, I suppose.